(Image: The Northern Echo)
A County Durham pervert who was caught with extreme porn involving animals on an Xbox has narrowly avoided jail.
Stephen Taylor, 49, of Eastern Avenue, Langley Park, appeared at Durham Crown Court on Tuesday (August 18) for sentence having belatedly admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornography.
He denied the charges at a plea hearing in July last year but then failed to attend his scheduled trial at the court on July 6, this year.
A bench warrant issued for his arrest was executed two days later when Taylor was brought before the court and changed his pleas to guilty to all four offences.
Ellen Wright, prosecuting, told the sentencing hearing that the offences arose from a police visit to his home in September 2022.
Taylor was arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, after information was received they such material was accessed at that address.
Miss Wright said examination of an X-Box and phone received from the defendant’s home revealed 28 still images, seven in the most serious category, featuring children aged four to 11 being sexually abused.
Five images featuring acts of bestiality, classed as extreme pornography, were also recovered from the X-Box.
Search terms used were indicative of him seeking out such images of children.
When initially questioned the defendant made “no comment” replies in his first two interviews.
But in his third interview, three years on, he told police he had been searching for adult pornography and was linked to child abuse sites, for which he had not purposefully gone looking.
John Crawford, for the defendant, said he has no previous convictions and has expressed a degree of remorse to the author of his probation pre-sentence report.
Mr Crawford said the number of images found was a “relatively small amount” compared to some such cases heard in the courts.
He said that approaching the trial date the defendant, “very much buried his head in the sand”.
But he said once the warrant was executed, he was “very frank” in his interview with the Probation Service.
Recorder Mark McKone said people who admit possessing indecent images, with no previous similar convictions, are usually given “one chance, but one chance only”.
He said the images were downloaded more than four years ago, with no suggestion of the defendant re-offending.
Recorder McKone passed a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
But he warned the defendant if he commits another similar offence, the sentence will be activated.
He also ordered Taylor to attend 30 probation-run rehabilitation activity days and pay £500 costs.
The defendant was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and registration as a sex offender, both for ten years.
A deprivation order was made for the phone and X-Box on which the offending images were found.