A FORMER MARTIAL ARTS TEACHER CONFESSED TO BEING "SEXUALLY ATTRACTED" TO INDECENT IMAGES OF CHILDREN AFTER HE WAS ARRESTED
A man with a background in martial arts admitted to being sexually attracted to indecent images of children following his arrest.Michael Southern, aged 28 and residing on Vine Street in Widnes, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after authorities found over 100 illegal images depicting minors, some of which involved children as young as just one year old.
Prosecutor Carmel Wilde outlined the case details.
The court was told that police received a tip regarding Southern on December 15, 2018, but only executed a search warrant on April 9, 2019.
During the search, officers seized a laptop, a hard drive, and a mobile phone.
Southern allowed police to examine his cloud storage accounts.
An analysis of his iPhone revealed possession of illegal images and videos of children, along with evidence that he used the social media app Wickr to share such content.
Southern faced charges related to creating and sharing indecent and prohibited material involving minors.
Authorities found 28 Category A images, 27 of which were videos that depicted child rape involving victims aged 7 to 11.
Additionally, 20 Category B images four videos with children aged one to two and 64 Category C images, including one video involving a very young child, were discovered.
Overall, he was found with 112 images or videos depicting child abuse.
Remarkably, just days prior to his arrest, Southern was actively distributing and receiving child abuse images via Wickr, demonstrating ongoing involvement.
Judge Swinnerton sentenced Southern to a total of 28 months in prison for distributing Category A images, 12 months for Category B, and four months for Category C, all concurrently.
For creating Category A images, he received 16 months, with additional concurrent sentences of eight and four months for Categories B and C respectively.
He was also given 16 months for possessing all 112 images and four months for two prohibited images, these sentences running at the same time.
In total, Southern’s immediate imprisonment term amounts to 28 months.
The court also imposed a sexual harm prevention order, a notification requirement, and ordered the confiscation of the electronic devices involved.
