Suspended sentence for Southport man who downloaded child abuse images

Suspended sentence for Southport man who downloaded child abuse images

A SOUTHPORT man downloaded “disgusting” child sexual abuse images after searching web addresses in Russia and Germany, a court has heard.

Police identified David Johnson as the culprit and sentencing him, a judge pointed out that people who view such photographs and videos encourage others to abuse children for the images.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that 51-year-old Johnson had downloaded a total of 505 images including 42 videos in all three categories of seriousness.

Johnson, of Rufford Road, was also found to have 79 extreme pornographic images, all but two videos, and 61 computer generated indecent images of children, said Chris Taylor, prosecuting.

Police had raided his home on April 6 last year and seized his computer equipment. Asked if investigators would find under-age girls Johnson said they would not though they “would flash up now and again” when he was on line.

However his search terms included “nude schoolgirl” and “young, chubby and pre-teen”, said Mr Taylor.

Johnson pleaded guilty to three offences of downloading indecent images, one of possessing extreme porn and one of possessing prohibited images of children.

He was sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for two years, ordered to attend a sex offenders programme and 60 days rehabilitation activity.

A ten year Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made and he was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for the same period.

Judge Steven Everett told him that the children in the images would have been left mentally scarred for life . “It is a sad reality some may not now be alive because they have taken their own lives or once abused  in this way may well have been sadly disposed of.”

He told Johnson, “You knew what you were doing and it is time for you to accept that and own up to it. There is a glimmer of change but you need to be more honest than in the past.

“You are not a lost cause and you have real medical problems,” he added.

Rory McCormack, defending, said,”He is a very ill man.”

He has a serious heart condition and other heath problems including diabetes. Mr McCormack added that the defendant had had limited insight but was now gaining in insight.

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