A 56-year-old man with a self-confessed “sexual curiosity” in youngsters can be free of jail at present regardless of receiving a two-year sentence for possessing greater than 200,000 indecent pictures and movies of kids.
Stephen McLaughlin, from Laburnum Place in Coleraine, has spent a lot time in custody ready for his case to be handled that he's now set to be launched and has simply seven months left of his supervised jail licence.
Sentencing McLaughlin at Antrim Crown Court docket, Decide Richard Greene QC stated that whereas it was “tempting” to impose a probation order on McLaughlin, as that will assist him handle his deviant points, “that would been seen as sentencing [him] twice”, given the numerous interval he had already spent on remand.
Ordering McLaughlin to signal the police Intercourse Offenders Register for ten years and imposing a ten-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, the choose instructed the pervert “it is a very severe case and you already know that”.
“You're properly conscious of what you're accessing,” the choose continued, referencing the 200,000 movies and pictures, together with 2,000 of these inside essentially the most heinous class “depicting what can solely be described as extraordinarily disturbing”.
At an earlier listening to, McLaughlin entered responsible pleas to 22 fees regarding indecent pictures of kids and one among having prohibited pictures on dates between January 1, 2015 and Could 21, 2019.
Prosecuting counsel Michael Chambers instructed the court docket that police raided McLaughlin’s dwelling in Could three years in the past and when requested if he had unlawful materials, he instructed the investigators “certain, you already know I do” however pressured “there was no distribution”.
Examination of his seized units confirmed that he used two totally different, covert browsers with a purpose to search and retailer offending materials, admitting that “he has a sexual curiosity in youngsters”, stated the lawyer.
In complete, 205,000 pictures and movies have been uncovered — 197,000 inside class C, 4,000 inside class B and a pair of,000 inside class A.
Defence counsel Michael Smith conceded that McLaughlin had an enormous quantity of fabric and that the offences have been aggravated as he had a earlier conviction for a “contact sexual offence” within the mid Nineties however pressured the time he had spent on remand.
Decide Greene stated the custody threshold had been handed, due to the rules and sentencing vary obtainable to him.
Successfully, McLaughlin was freed on time served.