A man has appeared in court charged with having a huge haul of child pornography at his home in Co Donegal.
Paul Cowell, aged 53, appeared by videolink before Falcarragh District Court.
He was arrested following a Garda raid on his home at Meenacladdy, Gortahork on Saturday, December 11th.
He is charged with having 198 movies depicting extremely sexual and physical abuse of both male and female prepubescent children and babies being abused by both adult males and females and other children.
He is also charged with having 303 images depicting similar scenes as well as possessing four movie files of prepubescent boys and girls with their genital areas clearly exposed.
These charges relate to unknown dates between January 1st, 2016 and July 27th, 2018 at his home at Meenacladdy.
All charges are contrary to Section 6 (1) of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act of 1998.
Cowell’s solicitor Mr Patsy Gallagher said he was making a formal application for reporting restrictions in the case.
However, Detective Garda Enda Jennings said the victims were not known directly to Cowell and many were in Asia and Europe.
Judge Raymond Finnegan refused the application and allowed Cowell to be named by the media.
Detective Jennings also said that the man’s wife wanted nothing more to do with him and that he was not welcome at his home address anymore.
Cowell is originally form the UK but has been living in Co Donegal for more than a decade.
The case was adjourned until next Monday for possible directions in the case from the Director of Public Prosecutions.