Craig Gardiner jailed for child pornography offences

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Craig Gardiner was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to four years in prison. Judge Martin Nolan suspended the final two years on condition that he undergo Probation Service supervision for two years. The proceedings were reported on 27 January 2015.

Gardiner pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and three counts of distribution of child pornography. The possession charge concerned Cyberzone café, Drogheda Street, Balbriggan, on 1 November 2010; the distribution counts concerned offending between June and September 2010.

Two mobile phones seized after his arrest contained 755 images of child pornography, including 39 images of boys aged between two and 10 being abused by adults. The court heard that emails sent by Gardiner had attached 217 images of child pornography of a similar nature to those found on his phones.

The report said Gardiner had no previous convictions and had briefly fled to Northern Ireland to avoid arrest before returning voluntarily.

Dominic McGinn SC, defending, described Gardiner as naïve and lonely and said he shared the images “to establish and maintain relationships with people”. Judge Martin Nolan said Gardiner must have realised children were abused in creating the images, but accepted that he was in a very lonely part of his life and distributed them among people who could be termed friends, without profit. The judge considered him unlikely to reoffend.