Irishman accused of asking child in US to engage in sick bestiality acts
Images and videos were found in a recycle folder on Johnstone's computer
An Irishman accused of inducing a child in Texas to engage in bestiality has been previously convicted of possessing child sexual abuse images in Ireland.
Matthew Liam Johnstone (36) is currently serving a prison sentence in Ireland and will now face likely extradition to the United States.
Jailed last December for a year, it was his second conviction and prison sentence after a previous trial judge said the imagery was the worst she had seen in nine years on the bench.
Now the Longford native is facing a possible life sentence in prison in Texas after he was indicted by a grand jury on eight counts of 'enticement' and 'sexual exploitation' of a minor.
A warrant for his arrest was signed on Wednesday by Magistrate Judge Mitchel Neurock in the Corpus Christi Division, southern Texas.
Images and videos were found in a recycle folder on Johnstone's computer
There are eight counts on the indictment that he sexually exploited a minor to create sexual content on four occasions from September 8 to 17, 2022.
Contained in Count 7 of the indictment is that the child was allegedly induced to engage in sexual activity 'namely, bestiality'.
If convicted, Johnstone faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and all charges also carry a possible $250,000 maximum fine.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assisted in the investigation into the Irishman.
The FBI Houston office posted on their X account that Johnstone 'thought he could get away with coercing a Texas child into filming sadistic sexually explicit conduct'.
'He forgot the FBI will go to the ends of the earth to hunt down child predators.'
In 2021, Johnstone was jailed in Ireland for a year after being caught with 22 images and 13 videos of children between the ages of one and 12 years old being sexually and physically abused.
Matthew Liam Johnstone could face a life sentence
News in 90 seconds - 11th August 2025
Gardaí had been tipped off by police from another jurisdiction who tracked his computer to an address in 2018.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that one of these videos depicted an 18-month-old child being subjected to 'elements of torture', as first reported by Court News Ireland.
At that stage, Johnstone had no previous conviction and pleaded guilty to the charges.
Judge Pauline Codd said the images were 'stomach churning' even describing them, 'let alone viewing them'.
She said one video which depicted an 18-month-old being subjected to 'sustained and severe' physical and sexual abuse was the worst she had heard of in her nine years on the bench.
The judge said the case was aggravated by the 'deviant and depraved' nature of the material, in particular a video which depicted 'elements of torture'.
The young age of the children concerned was 'particularly aggravating'.
Matthew Johnstone
A Garda witness said the images depicted girls between the age of four and 12 years old being sexually abused by adults.
Eight of these images had been digitally altered to add a horse's genitalia to the image of a child being abused.
The videos depicted girls between the age of one and 10 years old being sexually abused by adults.
Four of the videos depicted the same 18-month-old baby being subjected to a variety of physical and sexual abuse by an adult woman, while another was described as being a 'trailer' for these four videos.
Many of the images and videos were found in a recycle folder indicating that they had been deleted.
Some were found in system- generated files which are created when files are viewed and are not usually accessible to the user.
Gardaí also found there was a search for a 'TOR hidden service child pornography website', which was used to access several of the video files.
Johnstone had told gardaí he had been in contact with certain people over social media and became involved in the offending through this.
The former bar manager had lost a job in a restaurant when his offences came to light and his marriage had also broken up.
He was given a three-year sentence with two suspended in October 2021 which meant he had just been out of prison when he allegedly targeted the child in Texas.
Then, in March 2023, he was given a suspended sentence for accessing other people's iClouds without their permission around the same time as the previous offence.
However, last year he appeared in court again on two counts of possessing more child sexual abuse imagery.
Last December at Dublin Circuit Court he was again given a three-year sentence with two years suspended.
Sources told the Sunday World he is still in custody in Ireland and is serving his sentence in the Midlands Prison.
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