A sicko from Ireland described as the world’s largest facilitator of child abuse images was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Wednesday by a US court.
Dubliner Eric Eoin Marques, as part of his plea, admitted he conspired to advertise child abuse images by running an anonymous web hosting service.
Judge Theodore Chuang described the offences at the US District Court in Maryland as the equivalent of those of a drug kingpin.
Mr Chuang added: “This crime was truly despicable.”
New York-born Marques, 36,pleaded guilty to the offences in February 2020.
He has dual Irish and US citizenship and was arrested in Dublin in 2013 and extradited to the US in 2019.
The judge agreed to recommend that eight years Marques has already served in custody in Ireland and the US since 2013 should be given as credit to him by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The judge also ordered him to pay restitution of $87,000 (€73,600) to victims of the child pornography that he helped distribute.
The original version of the plea agreement between Marques and prosecutors called for a prison sentence of 15 to 21 years.
Judge Chuang rejected that deal during a hearing in May, and called it “too flawed” and said he was inclined to give Marques a longer
sentence than 15 to 21 years.
A revised agreement recommended a jail sentence of between 21 and 27 years. prosecutors wrote: “It goes without saying that the crimes committed by (Marques) are without parallel,” and they added it “created a ‘safe place’ for child sexual abusers to meet and share images, videos, to encourage, to promote and discuss the sexual abuse of children, to include infants.”
Meanwhile, defense attorneys said a 21-year sentence would be “fair and just” for Marques,
His lawyers also asked Chuang to allow Marques to return to Ireland after he completes his prison sentence.
They said: “No punishment can undo the harms reaped upon the victims of child pornography. However, the Court must met out a sentence that weighs that harm among many other factors.”
The original plea deal would not have given Marques credit for the prison time he served in Ireland while fighting extradition to the US.
