Family and Friends Forum

Hello all,

Ireland does not have any forum quite like this and I find the information and support here to be a wonderful thing, and I wish Ireland had anything remotely similar.

Sadly, we do not. So I am posting here in the hopes that there may be others from the south of Ireland that may be able to give any insight.

2 months ago my son of 25 received the knock in our family home. There plain clothes gardai entered and seized thre mobiles, a work laptop and his PC. They did not ask for his passwords for any of the devices or for his emails. The only information they gave us was that they received a tip off from somewhere international, they asked him no questions other than where he thought the images may be found. All they said to us was that "80% of the time it's just a false flag and he's innocent until proven guilty", a strange thing to say to us, as one of the gardai said to him "I've seen the pictures, you don't get those pictures from Google".

So there conduct was very confusing, they didn't seem to do a very thorough search and didn't ask a lot of questions. 2 months on and no word from them, no interview or call or email. He has a solicitor who has reached out to the officer in charge of the investigation, he was told he was on holidays for a month. Solicitor is trying to get them to contact the solicitor for any further communication so as to not bring them to the family home again if possible.

Has anyone from Ireland been through the process/ currently going through the process? How long has it taken for them to analyse the device's? He was given a letter stating it can take in excess of 6 months and reading news articles it's so inconsistent on timeframes. It's very frustrating to not how what happens next. There is no Information online about Ireland and the process and I'm worried, frustrated and we are all finding it so hard to live a normal life while this is happening.

I'm sorry if this post is very loaded but any information on anyone's personal experience would be great and I'd be so greatful and my mind would thank you even more.

Thanks x

Hello,

Thank you so much for your reply. Unfortunately I'm not able to message privately at the moment as it is a new account. I'm so happy to hear there was no further action taken in your case, I can only hope for the same outcome for my son.

Was he ever voluntarily interviewed in the time between the first knock and the 6 months between? That's currently what we are worrying about as that is the next stage so says his solicitor.

We are in the West of Ireland, I don't know how that may effect timelines for the investigation and like I said, there really isn't any information out there about this for Ireland.

Thank you so much for your reply as it does shed some light on where it's heading and how they work. I suppose we will be awaiting some communication from the investigators until then, did they physically come to the house a second time to ask for the passwords or did they email/call? I don't like the attention being drawn to the house over this as you can imagine.

Thanks so much x

Hello again,

Thank you again for that information, it's so good to hear some clarity on how all this works.

It's so annoying to hear they had to physically come to the house to ask for a password, that seems like a waste of everyone's time but I suppose at least they come as plain clothes do it isn't as noticeable.

We are doing ok, trying to continue on as normal which is good on side but very difficult on another as it feels like living a lie until the time comes. But I think it's better to live life as normal for now as there's nothing we can do other than wait.

He is doing ok, up and down. He is getting therapy once a week for depression and anxiety but he finds it hard as he can not tell this therapist what is actually happening right now. He finds it difficult not being able to tell people, as I'm sure you know, if he did tell the wrong person then his whole life ends once the word is out even before any guilt is proven.

He is still working and determined to stay working until he can no longer do it, still wants to contribute to the house and save as much money as he can incase anything goes wrong after the Investigation.

He would love to get this whole situation off his chest and we are supporting him. He doesn't believe he has done anything that would harm children, he said he had been addicted to p*rnography for years and years, but hasn't actively seeked out any illegal images. So just by being around group chats he might have been flagged up by something but he really doesn't know why. He isn't sure if the therapy specifically for harming children would be a benefit as he says he never had those thoughts, but he is also struggling to keep the investigation quite and it's obviously tearing him apart.

That's the background of what we are going through at the moment.

I thank you again for your reply and the information it's been so helpful to us x