SOUTHPORT man caught with child abuse images tells judge: “You won’t see me again”

SOUTHPORT man caught with child abuse images tells judge: “You won’t see me again”

A step-dad caught with “foul images” of children as young as three and animal porn was spared jail.

David Poole, of Blundell Avenue in Birkdale, downloaded 220 indecent images over a five-year period.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the 69-year-old’s disturbing collection also included extreme pornography involving dogs.

Ian Criddle, prosecuting, spoke of the “young age of the children pictured”, some of whom were only three.

He said Poole used internet chat rooms, which led police to locate his house using his username and computer IP address.

When officers raided his property on 12 May 2017, the OAP was at home with his wife and 14-year-old step daughter.

Mr Criddle said police seized two of his computers containing hundreds of “foul images”, collected between 2012 and 2017.

This was despite the fact Poole had installed shredder software, which Mr Criddle said would have been used to “disguise what someone does on a computer” by removing files in the hope they could not be recovered.

He told the court that recovered search terms clearly showed an interest in child abuse images.

Poole had also used the search term ‘Lolita’ after getting advice from chat rooms, a reference to the 1955 Vladimir Nabokov novel about a middle-aged man’s sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl.

Poole admitted downloading 66 Category A – the most serious category – 73 Category B and 81 Category C indecent images of children.

He pleaded guilty to possessing 220 in total, plus a further four prohibited images of youngsters, along with five extreme porn images.

Judge Gary Woodhall said there was a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation” due to Poole’s “good character” and employment prospects.

He handed him 12 months in jail, suspended for 15 months, plus a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 60 days.

Poole was told to comply with a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

Judge Woodhall told him “you have been given a chance”, to which Poole replied: “You won’t see me again.”

Report credit: The UK Database