AN "ACTIVE" member of a church's youth club and the Boys Brigade downloaded and "traded" images of children being abused and "directed activities" of an underage child in a web chat.
Craigavon Crown Court heard that in an "intelligence lead operation," police raided the home of Neil Cunningham (25) and when they seized a computer, a laptop and a storage device, he immediately confessed there were indecent photographs of children on the hardware for which he was responsible.
Arrested and interviewed, Ian Tannahill, prosecuting, described how Cunningham admitted to cops that he had been looking at images of children "for approximately 18 months" and that he had "traded" some images with other people through internet forums.
While Cunningham, of Glebe Manor in Hillsborough, also admitted that he had "directed the activities"
of a 15-year-old in a web chat, Mr Tannahill said no charges were laid in relation to that, although Judge Patrick Lynch QC said that was a "worrying" element to the case.
Cunningham did, however, plead guilty to a total of 35 offences committed on dates between January 1 2011 and May 18 2013, including 25 counts of making indecent photo-graphs of children, eight of distributing or showing indecent images of children and two further charges of possessing extreme pornography.
Mr Tannahill said the images of extreme pornography related to acts of bestiality which did not involve children and that of the 932 still images and 19 videos uncovered by police, the large majority were in the least serious categories at levels one and two but there were eight at levels four and five.
According to the guidelines, images at level four depict sexual acts between adults and children while those classified at level five include elements of sadomasochism.
Peter Irvine QC, defending, said Cunningham was "extremely remorseful" for what he had done and that as a result "his life is in tatters" and from being "heavily involved in church activities," he now leads "a totally isolated life".
"Considerable activities with the youth club and Boys Brigade have already been terminated," the lawyer said.
He submitted that Cunningham was suitable for a probation-run "internet sexual offending programme" and revealed that at the behest of his father, Cunningham had already completed a two-day counselling programme to address the reasons behind his offending.
Remanding a shocked looking Cunningham into custody, Judge Lynch said it was a "difficult case given the gravity of the offending itself, distribution is an aggravating factor and there's the contact between the defendant and a young person" so he wanted to consider all matters before passing sentence on Tuesday.
* 'EXTREMELY REMORSEFUL': Neil Cunningham