A former US attorney has been sentenced to two years and nine months for possession of images of child abuse in Sligo.
GardaĆ seized over 900 condemning Ā images from the dwelling of Gerard Gilligan at Union Place in Sligo as a result of an extensive interpol investigation into a website in Croatia.
Gilligan, 61, was charged in relation to 646Ā printed pages with numerous graphic images of children under 12 and babies.
Sentencing Gilligan, Judge Keenan Johnson said that the images were repulsive, despicable and offensive to any right minded person.
A startling piece of evidence, the Judge said, was that the site he had taken them from had had 12 million hits from 145,000 IP addresses in 170 countries.
Gilligan had four previous convictions of a sexual nature in the US including aggravated sexual assault for which he served three years in jail, he was on the sex offenders register in Ireland as a result of his American convictions.
He left IrelandĀ during the investigationĀ and wrote to gardaĆ from the US informing them he had left, however,Ā he subsequently returned voluntarily to Ireland to face the charges.
Judge JohnsonĀ stated that it was extremely concerning that although he had had attended a treatment programme while in custody in America, Gilligan still reoffended.
The level of depravity of the images and the fact that babies were included were extremely aggravating factors in the case, he said.
A probation report on Mr Gilligan also stated that he was at high risk of reoffending.
Judge Johnson suspended nine months of the jail term on certain conditions including supervision by the probation services for three years after release from jail and an obligation to comply with all directions including undergoing therapy.