Man pleads guilty to possession of child porn images at Longford home
A man who entered a plea of guilty to possessing child pornography at Longford Circuit Court will return before Judge Kenneth Connolly this week for sentencing.
Wojciech Odrobina, 10 Canal Drive, Prospect Woods, Longford was charged with possessing the images at his home address on January 24, 2018.
Detective Garda Damien McGovern said the investigation commenced after Tusla contacted gardaí regarding accusations of inappropriate material relating to child pornography on the defendant's computer.
Officers obtained and executed a search warrant. The defendant gave no resistance to the search and showed the items and gave passwords to devices seized.
A forensic examination of the defendant's laptop computer found 22 images of child pornography.
The court heard the defendant is a married father of two children, but is currently going through a divorce. His wife has moved back to Poland.
The defendant has a previous conviction for possession of child pornography, but this offence predates the conclusion of that case.
Counsel for the defendant, Dara Foynes SC, said her client had been “very forthcoming” in his dealings with gardaí.
Ms Foynes stated that Mr Odrobina never paid for the content, nor had he accessed the dark web to obtain the images.
The barrister pointed out that her client works as an architect, but suffered mental health difficulties when he lost his job.
Ms Foynes said Mr Odrobina's offending behaviour was linked to depression.
Judge Connolly asked if there were efforts to identify the victims in the images. Garda McGovern said there was a specific unit within the Gardaí who conducted such investigations.
Judge Connolly remanded the defendant on continuing bail to Tuesday, May 16 for more details of the nature of the images found on the computer.