Man sentenced for possessing more than 62,000 indecent images of children and animal pornography

A man has been given a suspended sentence for possessing more than 62,000 indecent images and videos of children.

Derek Gordon McInnes, 57, from James Green Road in Coventry, Warwickshire pled guilty at Southampton Magistrates Court on Tuesday 28 March to possession of a wide-range of indecent images of children and images depicting extreme pornography – including use of animals.

He appeared at Southampton Crown Court yesterday (18 April) whereby he was handed a 20 month custodial sentence – suspended for two years. He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years, was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and told to conduct 200 hours of community service.

McInnes was also required to forfeit his computer and mobile devices and pay £425 court costs.

Officers attended McInnes home in Luccombe Road on Thursday 16 December after information was supplied linked to an IP address in relation to the download of indecent images of children. A number of items including a tablet, a desktop computer, and a laptop were seized. He was arrested at the scene.

Forensic examinations revealed he had 62,951 indecent images in his possession across the three devices.

Of these images, 5,586 were Category A – the most serious, while 6,256 were Category B and 51,080 were Category C. Whilst 26 prohibited images – those depicting indecent images of children in cartoon form – as well as three extreme pornography images.

The files contained pictures of babies, toddlers and preteens.

PC Ollie Green from the Internet Child Abuse Team led the investigation. He said: "McInnes possessed an extremely large collection of indecent images of children stored on his devices and some depicted acts of beastiality and extreme pornography.

"He clearly poses a risk to children and will have strict conditions imposed upon him as part of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will continued to be monitored as part of being on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next 10 years.

"Whilst this has not resulted in a custodial sentence, I hope this investigation highlights our commitment to keeping children in our communities safe across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and that we will do everything we can to ensure offenders are put before the courts."