Daniel McLoughlin (24), who claims that he was abused as a child and that this contributed to him carrying out his crimes, had 161 indecent images stored on electronic devices in his house, the Royal Court heard yesterday.
Of those images, which were a mixture of pictures and videos, 106 fell into the two most serious categories which depict rape and bestiality.
McLoughlin was sentenced to 12 months in prison and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years. He had admitted two counts of making indecent images of children.
Outlining the case, Crown Advocate Conrad Yates, prosecuting, said that McLoughlin had revealed to investigators that he had been downloading the images for ‘years’ and had never spoken to anyone about his ‘compulsion’.
In December last year investigating officers received a tip-off that indecent images were being downloaded at the defendant’s St Helier address and he was arrested at work on 16 January.
The court heard that when officers arrived to arrest the defendant he immediately made admissions and said: ‘It’s on my computer… that’s my life f***ed’.
The haul of images were stored on two devices, a laptop and an external hard drive, at the defendant’s flat and some had their descriptions removed because the defendant said he did not like seeing them.
McLoughlin, who used ‘peer to peer’ internet sharing networks such as Limewire and Shareaza to download the images, denied ever knowingly sharing the videos or pictures with others.
Advocate Giles Emmanuel, defending, said that his client was remorseful for his actions.
He added that he felt it might be harmful for him to serve a custodial sentence with other more ‘sophisticated’ offenders such as the recently sentenced former police officer Peter Whitehouse.
‘When he was arrested he was assured, because he knows his offending was wrong and it was what he needed to change his behaviour.
‘Daniel has said that he was the victim of a very serious sexual assault by a family friend when he was 12 or 13,’ the Advocate added.
Delivering the court’s sentence, Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq said that he hoped McLoughlin would use his time in prison to seek help.
‘These are not victimless crimes. Real children suffer the appalling abuse and the court can only under exceptional circumstances not give a custodial sentence. In this case there are no exceptional circumstances.’
Jurats Jerry Ramsden and Peter Morgan were also sitting in the trial.
