Longford circuit court: Child pornography case concluded

A father of two who pleaded guilty to possessing 22 images of child pornography was told his 20 month prison sentence will be suspended for three years if he pays €35,000 to a children's charity within the next nine months.

Wojciech Odrobina, 10 Canal Drive, Prospect Woods, Longford pleaded guilty to possessing the images at his home address on January 24, 2018.

The investigation commenced after Tusla contacted Gardaí regarding accusations of inappropriate material 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 married father of two children is going through a divorce. His wife has moved back to Poland.

The court was told that some of the images were duplications, with 13 unique images on the laptop. The court was told that a probation report was positive and Mr Odrobina had co-operated with the Garda investigation.

Noting the defendant committed the offence while on bail Judge Connolly said Mr Odrobina had “no sense of remorse for the victims in the images”.

The judge also observed that by sentencing the defendant to prison he would also be penalising Mr Odrobina's children, his mother and his ex-wife who were dependant on him for financial support.

The judge set the defendant's sentence at 20 months in prison, but said he was prepared to suspend it for a period of nine months to allow him pay €35,000 to Bernardo's charity. If the money is paid within the nine months the 20 month sentence will be suspended for a period of three years.