Crossgar man had indecent images

A CROSSGAR computer expert who downloaded over 1,400 indecent images of children has been placed on probation for three years.

Thirty nine year-old Dominic Ijichi appeared at Downpatrick Crown Court on Friday after police searched his Derryboy Road home in May last year.

A total of 1,403 images were discovered on his computer and all were at category one which is the least serious level of offending.

A prosecutor told the court that many of the images were of the same girl and the age range of children photographed from 12 to 15 years.

Defence counsel Stephen Molloy told Judge David Smyth that Ijichi had taken steps to address the matter himself by going to a counsellor.

Imposing a three-year probation order, the judge told Ijichi: “In many respects this is a less usual case to come before the Crown Court.”

He said most cases involved images which were in higher categories of seriousness.

“You were in possession of a large number of images but they were all in the lowest seriousness category,” he added.

Passing sentence, the judge said he did not believe the custody threshold had been passed.

He placed Ijichi on the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years and made him subject to a sexual offences prevention order.

As part of the sentence, Ijichi must also complete a course of therapy and counselling.