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Expelled priest Oliver O’Grady was sentenced to 22 months in prison in Waterford Circuit Court on Tuesday after a jury found him guilty earlier this month of possessing images of child abuse.
O’Grady had been accused of using a computer loaned to him by a roommate at 21 Otteran Place, South Parade, Waterford, to download a video showing an underage girl being abused.
O’Grady denied the charges, but admitted that the computer was used to search for images and videos of “children in underwear.” O’Grady’s main defense had been that he shared the house with many other people and the computer was used in a “common area.” He denied having downloaded or viewed the video.
The prosecution highlighted O’Grady’s activities on the computer to link him to the video. His email account, which was verified with his phone number, was used to download the video.
He had been looking for elements of a religious nature, such as the lyrics to O Holy Night and the Catholic Magnificat, at the same time he was looking for images of “young men in underwear.”
It was the case of the prosecution that no one else had been using the computer for this purpose and on October 19 it took a jury two hours to agree with that statement.
Directed court
Before his sentencing, Oliver O’Grady asked to address the court and reaffirmed that “he was not aware of the video until he was arrested.”
“I never saw the video, until I saw it both times it was shown in court,” O’Grady said. “The video is classified by law as a pornographic video due to the behavior of the person in the video.
“I think the reality of the situation is much worse. What we saw was a person who has lost her right to be considered human and instead is reduced to an object that can now be used and exploited by the will of those who control her, “he said.
“The trial concluded when the jury returned a guilty verdict. As much as he would have preferred a different verdict, it was not. I accept the verdict, ”O’Grady told the court.
In delivering the sentence, Judge Eugene O’Kelly said there was little in the way of any mitigation for O’Grady.
“If Mr. O’Grady were a person with no prior relevant convictions, possession of a single video of child pornography would place the offense in the lowest severity range,” said Judge O’Kelly. However, in this case, due to the particularity of his previous convictions and the exploitation of the generosity of those who innocently lent him the computer, and in addition to the damage done to the unknown and unidentified child victim, I place this crime between the beginning and half of the middle range on the severity scale, which has a two-year prison sentence in the title ”.
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