Court told man with pornographic child images had been a victim of Michael Ferry

A convicted sex offender with over 90 pornographic child images was a former school head boy, a court was told yesterday.
But the 44-year-old was also a child victim of notorious sex predator Michael Ferry who is serving 14 years in jail.
Defence solicitor Jacqui Sharkey said Neil McBride was abused by Ferry from aged 13 to17 and became a chronic alcoholic and his life spiralled out of control.
McBride was before Dungloe District Court for sentence after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to having 43 child pornography images on his Dell lap-top computer.
He also admitted having a further 51 images of children under 17 years of age who were either fully or partially clothed.
Unemployed McBride, originally from Gweedore, but with an address at Fontwell Apartments, Letterkenny, pleaded guilty to possession of the child pornography images on his laptop in August 2011.
Ms Sharkey revealed publicly for the first time that McBride was abused by Ferry, a former school caretaker in Gweedore who is serving time for sex offences against a number of schoolboys.
She said that as a result of the abuse inflicted by Ferry on McBride he failed his Leaving certificate.
Judge Kelly said he accepted McBride “suffered enormously” from what happened to him when he was younger but he had to accept responsibility for very serious offences.
The judge adjourned the case to March 10 for a Probation report and assessment of McBride’s suitability for community service.