A PEADOPHILE who had hundreds of indecent images of kids as young as four-months claimed he ‘doesn’t have any interest in child pornography’.
William MacDonald, formerly of Windmill Lane in Appleton, appeared before Aylesbury Crown Court on Thursday afternoon.
Prosecuting, Jack Preece told the court that in 2019 police had received intelligence that a device was attempting to download indecent images.
This device and its IP address were then traced back to the 51-year-old’s address.
MacDonald was then arrested, his devices were seized, and he was interviewed by police on September 3, 2019.
The court heard that in his interview, MacDonald admitted to having seen indecent images of children on his laptop but that he would turn it off.
Four computer hard drives and a Samsung mobile phone were forensically searched and revealed that the 51-year-old was in possession of 718 indecent images of children.
Of these images, 261 were deemed as category A, the most serious which is the most severe rating, involving child rape.
A further 234 were category B, and the remaining 223 were category C.
Mr Preece told the court that some of the images included a girl aged between four to six, and another involved a baby boy believed to be around four months old.
MacDonald was also found in possession of extreme pornography, including images of a female engaged in sexual intercourse with a dog, and another with a pig.
The 51-year-old as also found to have a further 121 prohibited images of children. A 45-minute video was also downloaded onto one of his devices of a female engaging in sexual intercourse with a dog.
Mr Preece told the court that the downloads of the indecent images date as far back as 2009, with the search history for indent images dating back to 2015.
Defending, Jeffery Shine told the court that MacDonald is ‘genuinely very remorseful’ and that he has taken steps to address his alcohol and cocaine ‘habit’.
Mr Shine also told the court that MacDonald said he ‘doesn’t have any interest’ in child pornography and that they ‘just came on to’ his devices. It was, however, confirmed to the court that he admitted an interest in bestiality.
During sentencing remarks, Judge Emma Nott told the 51-year-old that she did not accept that he doesn’t have an interest in child pornography.
“I don’t accept that you didn’t have, or don’t have, a sexual interest in children,” she said.
“There are too many images for that to be true. It’s not an accident that those images appeared on your computer.”
The court heard that a warrant was issued for MacDonald’s arrest after he did not appear at Warrington Magistrates’ Court.
He was later arrested near Buckinghamshire, and remanded into custody, which is why, the court heard, the case was heard in Aylesbury.
The 51-year-old spent the past two months in custody at HMP Bullingdon while awaiting his hearing.
MacDonald was sentenced to a total of eight months imprisonment for the offences, suspended for 18 months.
He must also be on the sex offenders register for 10 years and comply with a sexual harm prevention order for the same period of time.
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