The Liverpool ECHO filed a Freedom of Information request and found that a huge majority of people charged under extreme pornography laws in Merseyside were in possession of images of animals and humans having sex.
The data received by the paper showed that of the 174 people charged, 162 of them had such images. Freedom of Information request by the Liverpool ECHO has revealed that of the 174 people charged with having sick images, the majority – 162 – had images involving animals.
This year, at least 30 people in Merseyside have been charged this year under Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 which makes it illegal to look at images which threaten the life of the participants, show damage to people’s genitals or images involving animals – dead or alive.
Last year 47 people were charged with looking at one category or more of these disturbing images, the highest since the offences were introduced.
In the last five years all but one of the people charged under the law were men.
The woman who was charged, Wendy Jones, was given a 12 month community order in July of this year after police found she had a stash of photos of women having sex with animals including horses, dogs and pigs.
One man, Jacob Adair was given a suspended sentence after police found sexual images in his possession with a human corpose.
Brian Dempsey, a lawyer and academic who specialises in studying these offences, told the ECHO that while some people occasionally stumbled across these images by accident or were sent them by a friend, they were also often a gateway to more serious sexual offending.
Sometimes it is a case of innocent dissemination or someone gets sent a sick image as part of a joke that goes too far.
But often people who are watching this type of video are on a path to more serious types of sexual offending, that is why catching them is so important.
Some people say so long as it consensual does it really matter? But these images are often the gateway drug to other offences.”
Another person charged was Former Lib Dem councillor Richard Roberts (in the feature photo).
He was sentenced to jail for 15 years after admitting 16 charges including offences of making and distributing indecent photos of children, possessing extreme pornography, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, and arranging a child sex offence.
To read more, go to Liverpool Echo
