A Galway man, now living in Dublin, has been sentenced to one year in prison for the possession of child abuse material, which included children being caged.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that 48-year-old Alan Keating of Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6 and formerly of Co Galway, pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material on April 29, 2017.
The qualified baker has no previous convictions and has not come to the attention of gardai since.
The court heard that Alan Keating who went to college in Athlone after attending primary and secondary school in Galway, experienced a childhood trauma, which had long-standing difficulties for him.
His counsel said that when the gardai contacted him, he felt a sense of relief, was cooperative and showed good insight into his actions
330 images and 719 videos were found on his laptop of children aged between 1 and 12 years of age who were being subjected to or engaging in sexual acts.
A small number of the images found contained extreme acts, which included rape, being bound with ropes or being contained in cages
