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BOYCOTT BALLYMALOE COOKERY SCHOOL AND RELATED PRODUCTS

Cooking Might Be Fun, Child Pornography Is Not

• Ballymaloe chef, Tim Allen, was convicted on 16 January 2002 in Midleton District Court, Co Cork, Ireland of possessing pornographic images of children 
• Allen who operates Ballymaloe Cookery School with his wife, was convicted of possessing child pornography at the premises on 27 May 2002 contrary to Section 6 of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998
• Allen was neither jailed nor sent for treatment. Allen received a nine-month suspended sentence for 240 hours of community service after he agreed to make a €40,000 ($40,000) contribution to the Edith Wilkins Foundation charity
• There was a public outcry at what seemed to be a case of one rich for the poor, one for the rich, as commented by an Irish politician at the time
• Sexual abuse survivors, Help and Counselling organisations also said the sentence was "inappropriate"
• Much comment was made in the Irish media at the time about the "lenient" sentence and that "less famous" people could expect jail for such an offence

• Over 977 images were recovered and examined after Irish police tracked Allen down using details supplied by the US Postal Service and the FBI

• After a search of the cookery school, Police noted that images discovered on the cookery school computers related to related to be children aged under 12 and some as young as five performing oral sex, sexual intercourse and other abuse
• Some 92 printed images were subsequently found in two envelopes
• A €40,000 Euro donation represents half-a-dozen bookings for a certificate course the Ballymaloe Cookery School 
• Tim Allen has extensive business interests; widely  publicised. You can read more about these at http://www.ballymaloe.com.  Allen and his family are wealthy people, so concerned about image that they  turned up at the court proceedings with a paid media advisor, Pat Heneghan
• You can read more about the case at by entering the words "Tim Allen Child Pornography Ballymaloe Ireland" into any reputable internet search engine or by searching Irish new sites

• Boycott the Ballymaloe Cookery School and any related products. You can find out more about the business and financial interests of Tim Allen at http://www.cookingisfun.ie
• Distribute this information to interested parties and ask them not to financially support or endorse Ballymaloe

• Write to Ireland's  Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform requesting the Minister to review the current Irish sentencing policy in this area and to introduce mandatory custodial sentences 
  The address: The Minister, Saint Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland 
  E-mail: [email protected] 
• Write to Ballymaloe about your boycott 
  The address: Ballymaloe Cookery School, Shanagarry, Midleton, Co Cork, Ireland
  E-mail: [email protected]