Richard Cox given suspended sentence for child abuse images

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

Richard Cox received a fully suspended two-and-a-half-year sentence for possessing child sexual abuse images at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 12 January 2024.

Gardaí searched a Tallaght address on 26 October 2020 and found 269 images and 39 videos of child abuse material on a phone. The court was told that additional material had been backed up automatically to cloud storage, without Cox taking action to upload it. It was also agreed that there was no attempt to distribute the material.

Cox pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child sexual abuse images. He had no previous convictions and made admissions to gardaí. Judge Martin Nolan cited the material and mitigating factors, assessed him as unlikely to re-offend to a great degree, and suspended the full sentence on strict conditions.