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Courts see massive rise in child pornography cases in three years

Courts see massive rise in child pornography cases in three years

The number of child pornography court cases has increased by 250% over the past three years.

In 2015, the DPP directed 22 cases for prosecution relating to accessing child porn, but this rose to 78 last year.

According to details released under the Freedom of Information Act, a further 49 cases have been directed this year.

Noeline Blackwell, from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, believes it is down to more enforcement.

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Ms Blackwell said: "What seems to have happened over the past few years is we will see that the gardaí will engage in an operation where they will find a ring of people supplying child porn.

"We have no idea what percentage of people who are accessing child pornography that they are catching as compared to what's out there."

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