‘You have a great life ahead of you,’ judge tells Irish man who put pictures of teenage girls on porn site


A judge told a man who put teenage girls’ Facebook profile pictures on a porn site: “You have a great life ahead of you.”
Evan Meehan of Dernish Lawn, Shannon, Co Clare, walked free from court with his conviction struck out – despite pleading guilty.
The 25-year-old admitted posting 30 photos of girls from his home village of Shannon and neighbouring villages.
But at an earlier hearing at Ennis District Court Judge Patrick Durcan told the accused the charges would be dropped if no other issues arose. And he praised Meehan for facing up to his problems and co-operating with the authorities including the Probation Service.
All of the 19 girls were Facebook friends of Meehans and most went to the same Shannon secondary school as him.
A number of the captions accompanying the photos described the girls engaging in sex acts with their fathers.
Meehan’s solicitor told the court his family had been “through the mill as a result of his actions”.
Stiofan Fitzpatrick added: “He is fully aware of that. They have been ostracised. His father’s car has been damaged.
“They have taken that on the chin because they know he did wrong.” Mr Fitzpatrick said Meehan was a boy when the offences were committed.
Mr Meehan acted alone in the crime and the offences took place during a period when Mr Meehan was aged 19 and 20.
The offences came to light after a number of girls presented themselves to Shannon Garda Station on June 30, 2014.
In court on Wednesday when asked how he was by Judge Patrick Durcan, Mr Meehan replied: “Nervous.”
In reply, Judge Durcan said: “You have all the reason to be nervous as you are before the court on very serious charges.”
However, both Judge Durcan and Insp Tom Kennedy praised Meehan’s efforts to rehabilitate himself. Insp Kennedy said the case was “in a good place”.
He added: “Everything has worked really well in the context of Meehan’s participation and he has done all he has been asked.
“He has learned a huge amount of lessons not least in relation to what happened and what happened could have been worse.”