Description
A man from Eastleigh sourced indecent images and videos of children from an internet chat room, a court heard.
Zach Mockford used a registration-free chat site to search for people to send him images, some showing children as young as four being sexually abused.
When police caught wind of his activities, they searched his laptop and found more than 200 videos and hundreds of illegal images, as well as more than 50 bestiality videos showing humans engaging in sexual activity with various animals
Prosecuting, Simon Wiltshire told Southampton Crown Court that police visited Mockford at his address in Cranbury Road, Eastleigh.
They checked the 24-year-old’s laptop and found 222 videos, almost half of which were the most serious, category-A images.
Police also found more than 100 still indecent images as well as 103 images of bestiality, both moving and still.
Mockford pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images and one of making extreme images – related to the bestiality images.
He was given a suspended sentence by Judge Gary Burrell, who said: “You now know that these are real children being abused in real life.
"Some of the videos show children as young as four being abused.
“They must have been suffering both physically and mentally."
Mockford’s nine-month sentence was suspended for two years.
He was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order and will be made to sign the sex offenders register, which he will be on for the next ten years.