A 65-YEAR-OLD MAN HAS BEEN sentenced to four years for possessing hundreds of thousands of child pornography images.

Former Central Bank employee Raphael Farina, of Spranger’s Yard, Crowe Street, Dublin 2, had pleaded not guilty to three counts of child pornography possession at the Circuit Criminal Court late last month.

Yesterday, Farina was sentenced to four years in prison and fined €5,000, according to RTÉ.

During his trial, the court heard that Farina had been downloading the images for 10 years and although he had earlier admitted that gardaí found child porn material at his home, he contested the validity of the garda search warrant.

Gardaí found almost 700,000 images of children and infants on computers, discs and DVDs at his home in 2007.

The jury took less than 20 minutes to convict him.

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Former Central Banker sentenced to four years for child pornography offences

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.