Golden Dawn leader convicted on kiddie porn charges

 The grand pooh-bah of an Irish Golden Dawn temple has been convicted of having more than 50 images of child pornography on his PC.

Ronan Phelan, 44, is a number two in David Griffin’s AO temple in Dublin. He pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to a charge of knowingly having child pornography in his possession at his home address between June 1st, 2006, and June 24, 2009.

The court heard he had images of boys and girls as young as nine. He had admitted the offence earlier, and the case had been adjourned until yesterday after the court had asked for probation reports on him to be prepared.

Garda Sgt Barry Walsh told Judge Cormac Dunne that a warrant had been obtained to search for the man’s home and computer. Phelan had 52 images of boys and girls aged between nine and 13 on his computer. Sgt Walsh said the defendant would not have paid for these images.

Phelan made a voluntary statement admitting the offence and the court heard he had co-operated with detectives during the investigation.

His solicitor, Michael Hanahoe, said that when an individual looks at this type of material, other similar images are often sent to the person’s computer.

Phelan admitted the offence to his employer and had resigned, although the last we heard he was still a leader of the Golden Dawn group.  In fact, if you are wondering how we found out about this story, it is because we were told by three people who objected to Phelan being in a position of authority over the temple who were booted out for complaining.

While some leaders might have thrown Phelan under the bus, Golden Dawn leader David Griffin expelled those who objected to his presence.

On Facebook, the writer Fr Barabbas wrote that it was not up to anyone to judge someone who had already been sentenced and punished in a court of law. Another person suggested that the story was just part of the Golden Dawn Flame wars and that people should really be getting on with each other (because that makes kiddie porn go away).

The judge heard that the Probation Service believed Phelan was at minimal risk of reoffending and believed his behaviour was explained by "events that occurred in his life" and that his remorse had been genuine. He sentenced him to 24 months' probation, and he was placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.