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Wexford man caught with stash of child sex abuse imagery is spared jail sentence

His wife was present in court to hear barrister Laura Cunningham say that Williams had lived a blameless life up to this point

© Gorey Guardian

Today at 08:22

A stash of child sexual abuse imagery came to light when gardaí raided a house in Gorey, the Circuit Court was told.

The result was a one year suspended jail sentence recorded against 47-year-old Kevin Williams of Creagh Demesne.

The case came before the court four years after investigators called to the defendant’s home with a search warrant.

Detective Garda Tomás O’Leary confirmed that the raid took place shortly after 8 a.m. on the morning of April 1, 2019.

The search, undertaken after Williams was identified in intelligence received by the guards, uncovered a bagful of DVD’s in a bedroom drawer.

Among the hundred or so discs, only a few were found to contain the child sexual abuse imagery.

The detective said that examination of the DVD’s revealed Williams had 24 images of prepubescent girls with their genitalia exposed.

Also included were six videos, ranging in run-time from three to ten minutes.

In addition, officers among them a member of the national cyber crime bureau seized an Acer lap-top which had four images of the same type.

The accused man was not arrested in connection with the matter until November of 2022, when he admitted ownership of the DVD’s and the laptop.

Judge Cormac Quinn was told that the defendant was originally from County Wicklow and resident in the Gorey area for some time.

His wife was present in court to hear barrister Laura Cunningham say that Williams had lived a blameless life up to this point.

Judge Quinn ordered that his name be added to the sex offenders register.

It was accepted that the man in the dock had no previous convictions and that he had entered an early plea of guilty.

The sentence was suspended once Williams agreed to be bound to the peace and to attend counselling.

An order was made out for the destruction of the material confiscated from his home.