A young Warrington man who downloaded hundreds of sickening images and videos of child abuse has been sacked from his job, a court heard yesterday, Tuesday.
Matthew Brownlee was found to have a total of 646 indecent images in all three categories of seriousness when police raided his home in Great Sankey on September 8, 2022.
Inquiries revealed that he had been downloading the photographs and videos over a five year period on various electronic devices, said Derek Jones, prosecuting.
He told Liverpool Crown Court that Brownlee’s home was raided after police received intelligence that he had paid to join the Mega NZ website. This contained legitimate images of adult porn but also had illegitimate material.
The defendant, now 28, told police when they arrived, “I know what this is about.”
His phone, laptop and hard drives, which were found in his bedroom, were seized for forensic analysis.
When interviewed he admitted that had accessed the site to buy adult porngraphy and said that there were no indecent images on his electronic devices.
Examination of the devices revealed a “hidden container” on his laptop which had deleted images indicative of 14 and 15-year-olds, said Mr Jones.
On another device images had been sorted into folders, the majority of which were easily accessible.
Mr Jones said that images recovered showed children aged ten and 11 being sexually abused by adults. Police also found eight bestiality images on his equipment.
The 39 images in the most serious category of child abuse included 13 videos and there were a total of 70 videos in the other two categories.
Brownee, of Ross Close, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children, three offences of making indecent images and one of possessing extreme porn.
Jeremy Rawson, defending, said that Brownlee, who has no previous convictions, had been assured by his employers, for whom he had worked for seven or eight years, that his job was safe but two weeks ago he was sacked.
His mum died about five months ago and he has been helping his father, with whom he lives, emotionally and also financially but can no longer do the latter.
“He has expressed a willingness to address his offending behaviour,” said Mr Rawson.
Judge David Aubrey, KC, told Brownlee, “Undoubtedly you have had a sexual interest in young children and I have no doubt you were downloading these images and watching them for your sexual gratification.”
He pointed out his behaviour perpetuated the sexual abuse of children.
The judge sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment suspended for 18 month and ordered him to carry out 35 days rehabilitation activities and 140 hours unpaid work.
He also has to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and the judge imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to last the same length of time.
