29 June 2007: John Peppard Sweet-shop owner and former scout leader John Peppard (52) was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the possession of child pornography. The retired insurance-company employee had worked as a volunteer with the Chernobyl Children's Appeal in Ireland in the '90s and began bringing young children from Belarus to Ireland to stay with him at his home in 1995. From Mount Melleray near Cappoquin, Co Waterford, he pleaded guilty to the possession charge but his counsel had appealed against a custodial sentence for a man "who had hitherto led a blameless life". Having adjourned the court last Tuesday to view the videos and photos garda� had brought to court as evidence, judge Alice Doyle said on Friday that the material found in Peppard's home was very disturbing and inappropriate. Peppard had put himself in a position of trust, she said, and if this had happened to Irish children there would be a public outcry. As well as the jail sentence, she directed that he be placed on the sex offenders' register for a period of 10 years.

10 March 2007: Maurice Doran Pensioner Doran from Rossmore Lawn, Templeogue, received a two-year jail sentence for possessing 5,283 child pornographic images. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard he had a "long-standing entrenched sexual interest in children" dating back over 40 years.

The 67-year-old was caught with the images in his home in 2001 and 2004. Most of the pictures showed male and female children, aged between 12 months and 15 years old, naked and engaging in explicit sex acts with both children and adults. Doran was on bail awaiting sentence for possession of 2,033 of these images when his wife and two adult children searched their home and discovered another CD-rom containing a further 3,250 images. Many of these were in the "severe" category. Judge Katherine Delahunt said Doran did not appear to understand the effect his offences had. Doran admitted he had been interested in child pornography since 1961.

15 February 2007: Paul Bradshaw Book-keeper Paul Bradshaw was given a threeyear suspended sentence after admitting to being in possession of 1,200 pornographic texts, images and videos of children. Bradshaw (34) of Balally Avenue, Dundrum, was arrested after somebody saw him looking at the pornography and contacted garda�. Although he admitted the offence, Bradshaw disputed whether some of the material he had was in fact pornographic, prompting the judge to say: "That is very disturbing as he doesn't seem to have come to terms with the reality of what it was."

Detective garda Paul Johnston said Bradshaw was arrested with 80 text messages containing stories of children engaging in sexual acts.

Some 1,100 photographic images were also recovered, as were 20 movies. Five percent of the images showed children aged five to 16 engaging in sex acts, with the remainder depicting naked children, predominantly males.

20 December 2006: P�draig Branigan The former Christian Brother and nationalschool principal received a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence on one sample count of possessing child pornography. P�draig Branigan (41) of The Pines, Mountainbay, Arklow was placed on the sex offenders' register after he came to the attention of garda� in 2003 following a worldwide investigation into internet child pornography.

Garda� searched Branigan's home in October 2004 and recovered 10,000 separate images of children aged between 10 and 14 engaging in explicit sex acts. Officers also found 200 movies and 100 text messages depicting pornography.

Branigan, who was principal of Arklow Boys' National School at the time, admitted he knew the children were underage and said he sourced the material from Thailand. Garda� said the images depicted the "victimisation of children, very vulnerable children". An investigation was launched to determine whether Branigan had abused children but no evidence was found to support this.

15 November 2006: Francis Daams Dutch national Francis Daams was given a two-year suspended jail term despite possessing over 11,000 images of child pornography. The 57-year-old from School Road, Durrus, Cork was arrested as part of a massive garda operation codenamed Amethyst. Garda� had received information about Daams' activities from Interpol.

Daams lived in Ireland and cared for his wheelchair-bound wife. He started off showing an interest in adult pornography and then moved to child porn sites, although the majority of images he had accessed were at the lower end of the scale of seriousness. The judge suspended the sentence after Daams said he was returning to live in Holland and that his wife's life would be greatly impacted if he was sent to prison.

14 June 2006: Patrick Kavanagh Fifty-year-old Patrick Kavanagh was arrested in March 2003 as he took photographs of the legs of young majorettes at the St Patrick's Day parade in Limerick city. Kavanagh, of Ballyneety, Co Limerick, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of possession of child pornography between 1998 and 2003. He was caught with 1,300 pornographic images and judge Carroll Moran described the case as one of the "most serious cases in relation to child pornography".

Defence counsel for Kavanagh said he was receiving treatment and society would be better off if he was allowed to continue that treatment rather than being sent to jail. The judge said that she would suspend sentence in the case as long as the treatment was going satisfactorily.

1 June 2006: Ray Daly Computer technician Ray Daly was jailed for three years after being arrested with child pornography described as "the vilest and most horrendous ever". The 41-year-old father-ofthree from Ellensborough Way, Tallaght had videos showing sexual abuse of children as young as two. The videos, which were recovered at Daly's home, showed children being raped and crying out for it to be stopped.

Garda� recovered three computer hard drives containing hundreds of child pornography pictures and videos. Daly accepted the material was on his hard discs but he denied possessing it. He claimed he "didn't seek out child porn".

During sentencing, judge Miriam Reynolds criticised internet service providers and said it was time that advances in technology were used to combat the problem of child pornography.

22 July 2005: David Walsh David Walsh, from Ardilaun, Portmarnock, Co Dublin managed to avoid jail even though he pleaded guilty to having 1,958 images of child pornography. The 56-year-old internal auditor was handed a two-year suspended sentence for possessing what judge Yvonne Murphy described as "child abuse, plain and simple."

Murphy was shown 50 sample images of those found in Walsh's possession in 2002 to demonstrate to her their "full spectrum". The images mostly depicted females aged from infants to 12 or 13 years old in sexual poses and engaged in sexual activity. US authorities had informed garda� that Walsh had used his Visa card 22 times between January and July 1999 to access US-based child pornographic sites.

Walsh is a married father of two daughter in their mid-20s.

10 May 2005: Stephen Seagrave Dubliner Stephen Seagrave said he downloaded child pornography out of "curiosity" and avoided jail time. The 30-year-old from Pine Woods, Greenpark, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to possessing the pornography in May 2002 and was given a suspended sentence. He had 138 images and eight videos depicting children aged between eight and 16 years old engaging in sexual acts with each other and adults.

Judge Miriam Reynolds said some of the images were "heartbreaking" and depicted instances where children were being clearly manipulated by perverted adults. She said the creation of such images was most clearly not an amateur hobby but an organised crime. "If these images were not downloaded, and if there was no possibility of commercial gain, there would be no such industry, " she said.

The judge added that it was not the case that "it is somehow harmless to simply look at the images" but said that she was taking the advice of the experts who had been monitoring Seagrave's treatment. Seagrave told garda� when he was arrested that: "It's not a turn-on. I did not get off on it. It was just curiosity. I felt sorry for the kids in the pictures and films."