Dubliner in guilty plea over US child porn charge

AN IRISHMAN once described by an FBI agent as the world’s largest ‘facilitator’ of child pornography websites, has pleaded guilty to operating a hosting service that allowed users to access images and videos depicting the rape and torture of infants and older children.

Eric Eoin Marques, 34, a dual citizen of the US and Ireland, faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years after his guilty plea yesterday to one count of conspiracy to advertise child pornography.

A plea agreement will ask US District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland to sentence Marques to 15 to 21 years in prison, but the judge is not bound by the recommendation.

Judge Chuang is scheduled to sentence Marques on May 11.

The Dubliner, who spent years fighting his extradition from Ireland to the US, operated a web hosting service on the darknet that allowed thousands of users to view and share child pornography, according to a court filing Thursday.

Marques, has remained in custody since his August 2013 arrest in Dublin. He was living in Ireland at the time of the alleged offences. The server that he allegedly used was in France. He was extradited from Ireland to Maryland last year.

FBI Special Agent Brooke Donahue has described Marques as ‘the largest facilitator of child pornography websites on the planet’, according to court records.

Donahue also testified that Marques had been searching online for information about obtaining a Russian visa and citizenship, RTÉ reported.

‘He was trying to look for a place to reside to make it most difficult to be extradited to the United States,’ the FBI agent said.