WIRRAL PENSIONER HAD EXTREME PORN ON HIS COMPUTER
A pensioner was discovered with hundreds of extreme porn images on his computer, a court has heard.Patrick Fitzpatrick, 71, was reported to police by a concerned neighbour, who has children, after witnessing him behaving indecently in his house window.
When officers arrived, Fitzpatrick answered his door naked from the waist down, claiming he had no trousers on because he had just been to the toilet.
Inside his home on Shakespeare Road, officers saw indecent pictures of women on the walls.
His computer was seized and 233 extreme pornographic images were recovered, mainly of acts of bestiality and people hung from hooks.
Fitzpatrick admitted owning the images of extreme porn in 2012 but denied charges related to indecent images of children; the prosecution offered no evidence on those charges, resulting in not guilty verdicts.
He was already sentenced for exposure at Wirral Magistrates Court and subjected to a supervision order.
His lawyer said Fitzpatrick fully admits viewing the material, though he claims it was due to morbid curiosity and was unaware of its illegality.
He has not viewed any such images for two years and intends to continue abstaining.
In sentencing, Judge David Aubrey, QC, suspended a ten-month prison sentence for two years, considering his guilty plea, age, delays, and previous supervision.
The judge described the material as "revolting in the extreme" but concluded that a suspended sentence serves the public interest best.
