Child Porn Website Owner facing 30years in jail after being extradited from Ireland

An Irishman faces up to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in the US to operating a web-hosting service that allowed paedophiles to anonymously access more than one million files of child pornography.

Eric Eoin Marques (34) spent years fighting his extradition from Ireland to the US. He pleaded guilty yesterday in a Maryland courtroom to one count of conspiracy to advertise child pornography and faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years after his guilty plea.

A plea agreement will ask US District Judge Theodore Chuang to sentence Marques to 15 to 21 years in prison, but the judge is not bound by the recommendation. Marques can withdraw his guilty plea if the judge departs from that recommended range. Judge Chuang is scheduled to sentence Marques on May 11.

A criminal complaint accused Marques of operating a web-hosting service on the darknet that allowed thousands of users to view and share images of child pornography, including many depicting the rape and torture of infants.

Marques, a dual citizen of the US and Ireland, has remained in custody since his August 2013 arrest in Dublin after an extradition request from the US. He was living in Ireland at the time of the alleged offences. The server that he used was in France.