Man viewed thousands of indecent images court is told

Paul O’Kane (47), of Clonmeen Drive, Strathfoyle, pleaded guilty to a total of 42 indecent images offences committed between July 2001 and August 2013.

They include making an indecent photo of a child and possessing an indecent photo of a child.

Londonderry Crown Court heard that police searched the 47-year-old’s home on August 20, last year and that O’Kane had immediately handed them a box file of discs, telling officers “this is what you are looking for”.

Police also removed other storage, two laptops, a tower computer and two external hard drives.

The court was told these were sent for examination and between 2,000 and 4,000 indecent images and movie files were found.

It was revealed there were 884 images which were category one, the lowest category, 94 level two images, 15 level three images and one level four.

In relation to the movie files there were 42 level one, 110 level two and 8 level four.

The Court was told that none of the images or movie files fell into the worst category, which was category five.

It was also revealed that the images were of children as young as seven or eight up to the age of 15 or 16.

It was confirmed that the accused did not distribute the images to any one else.

During police interview O’Kane admitted viewing indecent images of children and he claimed that while he had an interest in naturism, he denied he had a sexual interest in children.

The Court was told that when Officers asked O’Kane if he was aroused by the images he told them “not a lot”.

Defence barrister Eoghan Devlin told the court his client fully accepted his culpability and the matter coming to court was a weight off his shoulders in a way.

He said O’Kane was a very lonely individual who has no real family or friends.

Mr Devlin said “the best thing that happened to this man was that he was detected,” adding he could not carry on in this way.

He said O’Kane knew he had to be punished for his actions and accepted it was wrong.

Mr Devlin also said that O’Kane was now more forthcoming about his attraction to juveniles and went on to say that his client’s home was now under threat as a dierct result of the convictions.

“His life in this city may have to come to an end when he serves his sentence. He may have to move to another town or city,” he said.

Judge Philip Babington adjourned sentencing to allow him to consider the matter.

O’Kane was remanded in custody to appear in court this week.