GARDAÍ IN Carlow have seized a huge consignment of illegal pornographic films in a series of raids on an adult shop in the town.
Gardaí secured a court order to take into “police ownership” more than 1,500 items including DVD discs and hundreds of plastic covers with explicit and obscene sexual images. The material will be destroyed by “a specialist company with a waste disposal licence”.
Gardaí admitted they were “unable to identify the owners of the shop, who are hiding behind bogus, shell companies”. Their application to have the material impounded was not contested in court.
The gardaí passed information gathered in their ongoing investigations to the Criminal Assets Bureau. Under existing legislation, outlets which rent or sell films in video or DVD format must have a retail licence from the Irish Film Classification Office (formerly the Irish Film Censor’s Office), and all films must bear a sticker verifying that they have been classified.
A sample selection of the films seized was submitted to the Irish Film Classification Office, which confirmed they had not been classified for viewing in Ireland and were “prohibitable” under terms of the Video Recordings Act 1989. Garda sources confirmed that similar films are on sale at shops in towns and cities throughout the State.
In 2008, 261 cases of unclassified films were brought to the attention of the Irish Film Classification Office, which a spokesman said “would represent a sample of much larger numbers confiscated by the gardaí”.
The shop in Carlow, Temptations, running since 2006, continues to trade on Tullow Street.
A sales assistant told The Irish Timesshe could not provide the manager's name, but said he "lived in Dublin" and visits "once a week to pay the wages". She said the shop is "open for everybody" and is very popular with "all kinds of people who like sex".
Efforts to trace either the manager or the owner of the shop were unsuccessful.
