Teenager caught with child pornography after his laptop was hacked

A man now aged 22 pleaded guilty at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court to possessing child sexual abuse material discovered on his mother's laptop in County Mayo on 6 June 2018. He was 15 when gardaí found the illegal content after he reported to them that his device had been hacked as part of a sextortion attempt. The accused had been engaging in online exchanges with a hacker who subsequently infected the laptop with malware to extort money. Upon opening a video link, the screen displayed warnings and became inaccessible. He informed his mother and reported the matter to gardaí, leading to the laptop's examination by the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, which recovered the material from the recycle bin. Judge Eoin Garavan imposed a two-month sentence, suspended on completion of 100 hours community service within six months, citing the accused's age at the time of the offence, social isolation, and low reoffending risk. The case will be finalised on 7 November 2025. The accused was removed from the Sex Offenders' List.