August 2013 Ex-cop with indecent images on laptop avoids jail A giant ex-policeman who stashed a laptop containing hundreds of child images in his attic has avoided jail. Ciaran O’Meara was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, after pleading guilty to possessing 376 pictures of young girls. The 39-year-old, who stands almost 7ft tall, worked for five years as a PSNI officer before leaving the service over a separate issue. Yesterday a court heard he was a once competent and capable professional who suffered a spectacular fall from grace. Downpatrick Crown Court was told O’Meara, whose address was listed as Killowen Street in east Belfast, has had to move homes a number of times because of publicity surrounding his court appearances. The court was told O’Meara’s then fiancee discovered a laptop in the roofspace of the home they shared last March. She contacted police after finding pornographic images of young girls on the computer. Detectives found 376 indecent images. Some 367 were described as category one – the least serious of the five categories. Another nine were category two material. O’Meara admitted to police that he had hidden the laptop – but claimed it was because it contained adult porn. He claimed that he never knowingly downloaded child pornography. He also told police he believed the girls were over 18. Prosecuting lawyer Lauren Cheshire said the girls in the images were not prepubescent, but were clearly aged under 18. She said it was “of some concern” that O’Meara appeared not to know the difference in girls aged under 18. The court heard that, apart from the indecent images, O’Meara’s laptop contained a similar amount of adult porn. O’Meara lost his PSNI job due to problems with paperwork. O’Meara was accompanied to court yesterday by his elderly father, but is said to have been “ostracised” by other relatives and most of his friends. Judge David Smyth handed O’Meara a six-month prison sentence, suspended for three years. A Sexual Offences Prevention Order bans O’Meara from accessing the internet unless the device has the capacity to retain and display the history. He is also banned from attempting to contact any female under the age of 16 and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years. June 2013 7ft tall Belfast police officer admits having indecent images of children A GIANT ex-cop has pleaded guilty to child abuse images offences – just 48 hours after vigilantes smashed up his former home in a republican stronghold. Seven foot tall ex-PSNI officer Ciaran O’Meara, now living in Belfast appeared in the dock of Downpatrick Crown Court last Tuesday to admit a series of charges of possessing indecent images of children. Two days earlier, some angry locals in the north Belfast nationalist estate where the pervert ex-cop had been living have smashed up his former home. A gang attacked a house on Stratheden Street in Belfast’s New Lodge area after learning that child abuse images fiend Ciaran O’Meara had been living there for more than a year. The property is just yards away from a nursery school, a busy playground, and the home of a convicted Real IRA bomber. O’Meara has admitted 11 counts of having indecent images of children. The 7ft tall former police officer was snared after ex- colleagues in the PSNI’s internet crimes unit seized his computer. They found dozens of sickening images of kids being abused on the hard-drive. O’Meara – who resigned from the PSNI after the investigation began – was charged with collecting the disgusting haul. Following his arrest he moved from his home in a quiet part of north Down to a rented house in the New Lodge – an area where dissident republicans are active. The home of the Real IRA’s former Belfast boss and convicted bomber is just a few streets away from where the ex-cop had moved. O’Meara’s cover was blown last month when he first appeared in Newtownards Magistrates’ ‘ Court charged with child indecent pictures offences. He immediately moved from the house on Stratheden Street after neighbours read newspaper reports about his alleged crimes. Last weekend a vigilante gang smashed up the vacant property painting “pervert scum” on the front walls. One local man, who did not give his name, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I read in the paper that a child porn b*****d was living among us. “The New Lodge is full of young families and it sickens me to think this fella was looking out the window at them. “What’s worse is that the authorities allowed him to be put here even though they knew he was charged with child porn.” O’Meara, who was freed on bail after his guilty pleas, will be sentenced in Downpatrick on September 6