2025-07-07
Judge sends 'message out' and jails man (58) caught with child abuse material
Stage: Sentence
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: The judge said she would set a headline sentence of four years before she took a number of mitigating factors into account, including Kearns' co-operation with gardaí, his guilty plea, and the traumatic events in his life which the court heard led to him downloading the abuse material. Judge Codd said she had to send a message out as she jailed Kearns for six months.