Arthur Fiks, 47, of no fixed abode, admitted assault causing harm and possession of child pornography at Terminal One on June 28, 2022
A man caught taking photos of a woman in a toilet cubicle at Dublin Airport was found to have over 300 images of child pornography on several phones, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
READ MORE: Hackers claim to have stolen personal data and payment info of 560 million Ticketmaster customersGardaí described Fiks' account as “conflicting and self-serving” and said it was not borne out by evidence from the victim and eyewitnesses. In a ruling today, Judge Pauline Codd sentenced Fiks to three and a half years in prison, with the final nine months suspended.
Judge Codd said that while cases of possession of child pornography often involve more images, “even one such image is one too many,” noting that children need to be protected from sexual exploitation and that this was not a victimless crime. Detective Garda Neil Cotter told Joe Mulrean BL, prosecuting, that the assault took place in a public area of the airport after the woman had retrieved her bag from the luggage carousel and gone through Customs.
Airport police described her as visibly upset and still holding her own hair in her hand when they arrived at the scene. The court heard that other women in the bathroom came to help, including a Ryanair worker who began recording the incident on her phone. A third phone, described as a black LG mobile, contained 195 child pornography images, of which 81 were Category 1, along with 14 videos, of which 11 were Category 1. All other criminal images were described as being in Category 2, where a child watches or witnesses sexual acts.
“I did not come to Ireland to attack anyone; I came to get some work. It would not have happened if she did not take my phone,” Fiks told gardaí. Mark Lynam SC, defending, described Fiks' difficult childhood with both parents suffering psychiatric problems. Fiks was in State care from the age of 13 or 14, the court heard.
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