Metropolitan Police

A PERVERT who downloaded hundreds of “disgusting” images of children has been jailed for 18 months.

Dale O’Brien, 20, of Tottenham Lane, Crouch End, was caught with more than 400 sickening photographs of youngsters as young as three on his computer.

When police examined his internet activities stretching back to 2008 - when he was just 17 - they realised he had also sent child pornography to a friend using chat sites.

Among the images distributed by O’Brien was one which fell into the most serious category, depicting a child suffering serious abuse at the hands of adults.

O’Brien was handed an 18-month jail term at Southwark Crown Court today (Monday, November 8) after admitting one count of making indecent images of children and four of distributing them between May 10, 2008, and March 12 this year.

Police traced O’Brien to his computer through his use of peer-to-peer file sharing network Limewire.

After seizing his laptop, a computer tower and several discs from the home he shared with his mother in Southwark, police found the computing student had downloaded 446 child pornography images, including more than 100 falling into the two most serious categories.

He had sent four indecent images to another internet user, who his defence barrister said was his “girlfriend” at the time, not another paedophile.

O’Brien was living at the YMCA in Crouch End when police arrested him.

Judge David Higgins told him: “You have pleaded guilty to very serious offences. All of these images are vile and disgusting.

“This necessarily means that you were participating in a pernicious and destructive trade, which does incalculable harm to children, and they must be protected from people like you.

“They are the victims of your criminality, and there must be no mistake about that.

“It is self evident that your behaviour is disgusting, despicable and deeply antisocial.

“The public rightly regard such behaviour with both abhorrence and outrage, and if you choose to behave in this way, then you must accept the consequences.

“Your age is a matter of relevance, but I must add that whatever the age, whether it be 17, 18, 10 or 20, you were always well old enough to understand how deepy wrong what you were doing was.

“I don’t accept that you are in any way remorseful or that in some curious way you downloaded these images by mistake.

“You did it more than once after you knew perfectly well what was involved.

“I’m bound to say that on the evidence before me, the only thing that no doubt you regret is being caught.”

The judge also handed O’Brien a five-year sexual offences prevention order and placed him on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.