Marcin Wojciechowicz case adjourned after child pornography plea

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

Marcin Wojciechowicz (34) pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on a mobile phone. The case was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 15 July 2016.

Judge Melanie Greally adjourned the case to 5 October to consider it and allow gardaí to establish over what period the images had been collected. The report said Wojciechowicz had been in custody since his arrest.

Garda Brian Cleary said a co-worker found a USB memory key in his van after giving Wojciechowicz a lift home. The co-worker’s wife viewed an image, and the couple brought the stick to gardaí. It also contained a CV belonging to Wojciechowicz.

The report said investigators found over 16,000 images and 300 videos classified as child pornography on his USB stick, mobile phone and laptop. The court heard that 700 laptop images were in the highest category, depicting sadism and cruelty to young children.

The report said Wojciechowicz initially denied downloading the images and claimed they had been planted by gardaí. He later accepted viewing them but said he was trying to catch paedophiles and must have downloaded them accidentally.

Defence counsel, Padraig Dwyer SC, said Wojciechowicz accepted responsibility but maintained he had a long-term plan to hand the material to the authorities. Counsel said there was no evidence of commercial or distribution purposes and asked the court to consider that much of the material fell into lower categories. The report said Wojciechowicz had no previous convictions.

Mr Dwyer said Wojciechowicz had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in Turin in 2010 and received psychiatric treatment in Poland. He said proper psychiatric care might prevent reoffending. He also said Wojciechowicz was prepared to leave the country as part of any suspended sentence.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.