Declan Hegarty, aged 32, a native of Cork City, with a former address at Cuirt Seoíge, Bohermore, Galway, appeared before Galway Circuit Criminal Court, accompanied by his mother.

Hegarty had pleaded guilty to the possession of child pornography at his Galway address on May 17, 2009, and also at Mount Kenneth Place, Limerick, on Feb 20, 2008, when he first appeared before the court for trial in May last year. Sentencing was adjourned so he could avail of appropriate treatment.

Garda Brian Hanrahan gave evidence at last week’s sentencing hearing that on Feb 20, 2008, Hegarty made a complaint about his car being stolen from outside his workplace at Mount Kenneth Place. He said Hegarty was very agitated and said his computer’s hard drive was in the car and he desperately needed to get it back for college work.

Garda Hanrahan said Hegarty’s demeanour raised his suspicions and when the car was recovered later that day, he found the hard drive under the driver’s seat and sent it to the Serious Crime Unit in Dublin for analysis.

It contained eight images and 23 video files of child pornography, with some being of a very violent nature.

The garda said he got a search warrant and searched Hegarty’s home in Bohermore, on May 17, 2009. A desktop computer there had 27 images and 49 video files of child pornography. In all, 35 images and 72 video files were found in Hegarty’s possession.

Hegarty admitted he had downloaded the porn from the internet.

Garda Hanrahan said the images were of children as young as five being forced to engage in sex with adults and other children. The videos, he said, were anything from 15 seconds to 12 minutes long and some of the longer ones depicted the violent rape of children.

Garda Hanrahan said Hegarty was involved in setting up a franchise in Galway at the time of the second offence in 2009 and lost his job as a result.

Hegarty had one previous conviction in Nov 2004, for the possession of child pornography. He had been fined €1,000 and placed on the sex offenders register at the time for five years.

A report detailing Hegarty’s group psychotherapy sessions since Aug 2011, was handed into court.

A psychologist gave evidence that while Hegarty’s group sessions had been beneficial, he was still at a moderate to high risk of re-offending and would need to continue his treatment on a one-to-one basis for at least a year.

Judge Rory McCabe agreed to adjourn sentence for 12 months.

He said the seriousness of the offences merited a two-year sentence and the suspension of that sentence will largely depend on how Hegarty engages with his therapist in the meantime.