POLICE FOUND PAEDOPHILE’S PHONE PHOTOS OF CHILDREN BEING RAPED
A PAEDOPHILE could offer no explanation to the police as to why he had photos on his phone of children being raped.Anthony McKenna was also caught with depraved images of young children engaging in sexual activity with animals.
The 37-year-old was subsequently charged with one count of possessing indecent images of children and three counts of making them by downloading them.
All of the offences were said to have been committed in Warrington by the defendant, who lives in St Helens.
He was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, Tuesday, after pleading guilty to the offences before the magistrates’ court.
The court heard that Merseyside Police received intelligence that the user of a Facebook account linked to the defendant’s email address had uploaded an indecent image of a child to the internet.
As a result, a search warrant was executed at the defendant’s home address on February 20 last year, explained Georgiana Panteli, prosecuting.
McKenna was not home at the time, but several electronic devices were seized and sent for a forensic analysis.
He was circulated as wanted by the police until his arrest eight days later, when he was interviewed under caution and said that no indecent material would be found on his devices.
He also said that he had no knowledge of any indecent images being uploaded from his account, but he claimed that a friend could have cloned his account and done so.
During a search of his devices, analysts were alerted to the presence of child abuse images on a Samsung Galaxy mobile phone seized from McKenna’s home, in the files and gallery sections.
In total, they found 25 still images of children being sexually abused, of which 13 were graded in category A – the most severe form of abuse.
Of the remaining 12, four were graded as category B, and eight were in category C, with the photos depicting children aged between six and 14.
The court heard that at least three of the category A photos were of children under 13 being raped, while another was of a child engaging in bestiality.
Further searches found that McKenna had been banned from the Mega cloud storage platform due to him saving child abuse material, and his internet history showed him visiting ‘taboo websites and searches’.
He was interviewed again by the police on October 3, where he confirmed that the devices belonged to him, but he denied any knowledge of the indecent images and could not explain their presence on his phone.
Ms Panteli told the court that the defendant has six previous convictions for 20 offences between 2005 and 2011, mainly for dishonesty, with his last conviction being the possession of cannabis.
In mitigation, Lucy Moran, defending, highlighted her client’s guilty pleas at the first opportunity, and the fact that the number of images is relatively low compared to some cases the court deals with.
It was heard that McKenna has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, is awaiting an autism spectrum diagnosis, and is believed to have PTSD.
Ms Moran said that he would lose his home should he be sent to prison, and that he would find custody more difficult than most due to his neurodiversity.
She urged the court to suspend the sentence of imprisonment, due to the defendant engaging with help and being a realistic prospect for rehabilitation.
Before sentencing, recorder Nicholas Williams judged that McKenna ‘has a sexual interest in children’.
“It would be wrong to think that those who view such images, such as yourself, do not harm anyone,” he said.
“By viewing those images, you create a market for them, leading to more children being abused.” He continued: “I am satisfied in your case that the threshold for custody has been passed.
The real question is if there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in this case.
I conclude that there probably is, but the way to reduce your risk of offending is to address what lies behind your offending behaviour, and the best way to do that is by programmes received from the Probation Service.” McKenna, of Tolver Street near St Helens town centre, was sentenced to eight months in prison, but this was suspended for the next 18 months.
During this time, he must also complete the Building Choices programme and undertake 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
In addition, the defendant must sign the sex offender register and abide by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order, both for 10 years, and an order was approved to deprive him of his Samsung phone.
