Record details
The full extent of a paedophile’s sickening child and animal abuse interest emerged after he was jailed for offences including voyeurism, earlier this year, a court heard.
Cameron Greaves, now 21, received a total prison sentence of 18 months at Durham Crown Court, in May, after he admitted two counts of voyeurism plus possession of indecent imagers of children and extreme pornography.
The lead offences at that hearing were considered to be those of voyeurism, the covert filming of two boys doing private acts against their knowledge by Greaves, with the other offences relating to 16 indecent images of children and an unspecified number of extreme pornographic images.
Just a few months into his term of imprisonment, Greaves appeared again for sentence before the court, this time via video link from HMP Northumberland, where he is serving the jail term imposed in May.
Charlie Thompson, prosecuting, told the latest hearing that Greaves now falls to be sentenced after new charges were brought once the full contents of devices seized from him by police, in April, emerged.
The defendant, from Crook, admitted three new charges of making incident photographs of children and four of possessing extreme pornography when the case went before magistrates, in June.
It was sent to the crown court for sentence.
Mr Thompson said the new charges related to a far greater number of images, about 1,500 featuring indecent child material, 98 classed as extreme pornography and 54 prohibited images of children, in cartoon or CGI format, some stills but many of them videos.
Much of the offending material, particularly the images and videos featuring animals, were said to be of a sadistic nature featuring gross acts of cruelty and torture, while the child abuse images featured very young children, some in discernible distress.
Mr Thompson said Greaves had traded in the images, requesting, “the harder the better” from one like-minded individual with whom he communicated online.
Greaves had sought to buy some of the animal abuse material which originated from a now jailed British zoologist in Australia.
Cole Cockburn, for Greaves, said the images were gathered during the period covering the original conviction, offences dating back to a time when the defendant was aged 19, and of previous good character.
Mr Cockburn said the offending stemmed from the defendant’s addiction to pornography.
He said the harsh conditions his client has endured serving his prison sentence have exemplified the defendant’s, “on-going shame and deep regret.”
Mr Cockburn said: “He desires to leave prison as a man who can put this all behind him.
“He was well-liked before he went to prison and has made it clear when he does leave prison, he will do so with a deep-rooted desire not to return.”
Judge Nathan Adams told Greaves: “This is effectively the second part of a sentencing exercise started by Judge Kidd, in May.
“It appears for the previous two years you have been accumulating an extremely high-level of illegal material, including images featuring the abuse of children as young as one or two, just horrific conduct.”
He said the extreme images feature more than 70 videos of animals being, “tortured, mutilated and killed.”
Judge Adams said the officer overseeing the investigation described it as some of the most disturbing material he has had to view as part of his professional duties.
He said people like the defendant prepared to seek out and pay for material featuring such “horrific conduct” only encourage the making of more images of child abuse and sadism to animals.
Imposing a 28-month total sentence, it adds a further ten months onto the prison term passed on Greaves in May.
He also ordered deprivation of all the images and videos, plus the devices seized by police during their inquiry.
Greaves is already subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and registration as a sex offender, both for ten years, arising from his sentence in May.
But he was told the ten-year notification requirement period will now start afresh.
Detective Constable Liam Padget, of Durham Police’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team, said the force’s digital investigation unit launched an operation in June 2023 after it identified Greaves as having control of a Google account onto which indecent images of children were uploaded.
Greaves’ devices were seized immediately and upon examination, it was found he was in possession of a large quantity of extreme pornography, plus more than 1,500 images and videos featuring child abuse.
As a result, he was further arrested for these offences and brought into custody.
He was interviewed and later charged with possession of extreme pornographic images, possession of indecent images of a child, making indecent images of a child and voyeurism.
Det Con Padget said: "Following an in-depth investigation we can see Cameron Greaves has very deep-rooted sexual perversions, which included possessing disgusting child abuse images and images involving animals, even going to the lengths of recording others without their knowledge.”
He added: “Hopefully the sentence passed will deter others from sharing in children's misery".
