A man who downloaded images from naturist web sites of young boys posed naked while engaged in various sporting activities, has been fined €500 by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Paul Dempsey (47), Blessington, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography at his home on January 28th, 2001.
Judge Desmond Hogan ordered him to pay a fine of €500 and gave three months to pay it, and said that if he did not do so he would spend a month in prison.
He said Dempsey had been placed on the sex offenders' register when he first pleaded guilty to possession of the pornography.
Detective Garda Brid Wallace told Ms Orla Crowe, prosecuting, that gardai stopped Dempsey as he was driving towards them when they were en route to search his home from where various items were removed, including a locked briefcase, which was found to contain 13 printed images of naked boys aged between 12 and 14 years old.
Det Garda Wallace told Ms Crowe that none of the images depicted the teenagers in sexual acts.
Det Garda Wallace agreed with defence counsel that Demspey had assisted gardaí with the search. She also accepted that the images were at the lower end of the scale in a child pornography offence and that Dempsey had downloaded the images in 1998 from a naturist website.