Locations
Pine Road, Didsbury, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M20
Description
A former sergeant in the Spanish army was jailed for 44 months for storing and distributing the worst child sex abuse videos and images.
Gabriel Gonzalez, 43, had one 17-minute long video called Daisys Destruction, which showed the abuse of an 18-month old girl.
The police officer who viewed it said it was the worst he had ever seen and said other police should not look at it, Luton Crown Court heard yesterday (February 3).
The sentencing follows that of Bedford couple Nicholas Harris and Clare Buttrice, who were jailed for a combined 35 years for sexually and mentally abusing children last week.
Prosecutor Alex Kettle-Williams said that acting on information, the police raided a multi-occupancy house in Campbell Road, Bedford, on the morning of 18 October, 2018.
The officers seized one laptop and three hard drives from Gonzalezs room. He was not there at the time, but handed himself in later. He made no comment to the police questions.
Ms Kettle-Williams said 404 images were found on the devices, along with 182 videos. The total length of the videos was 20 hours, with the longest single film lasting 3 hours and 19 minutes.
Gonzalez had distributed nine moving images at Category A, the most serious level, and three Category B moving images to other paedophiles.
He had downloaded 85 still and moving images at Category A, 65 at Category B and 379 Category C images and 57 images of extreme pornography.
The images were stored under the names of music albums in an attempt to disguise them.
Ms Kettle-Williams said: He had a personal video library of indecent images. They showed pre-pubescent girls, with the victims in pain and crying. There was also bestiality and torture.
He said Gonzalez had used computer search terms such as 'sadistic', 'torture' and 'snuff'.
Gonzalez, now of Pine Road, Didsbury, Manchester, had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of distributing indecent images of children, three of making (downloading) and one of possessing extreme pornography. He had no previous convictions in England and Wales or Spain.
Defending, Richard Saynor said he had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
He said: He served successfully in the Spanish armed forces and worked his way up to the rank of sergeant.
He gained a psychology qualification. He moved to the UK and gained employment using his psychology qualification by assisting people with autism. At all times he was working with adults.
After his arrest he moved to Manchester, where he had been working in a car wash.
In a letter of apology to the judge, Gonzalez said: Serving as a sergeant taught me strong standards of protecting community and having personal integrity.
I realise in the position I am in today I have fallen far from those high standards. I wanted to apologise to all the victims in this case.
Referring to the Destructing Daisy video, Recorder Bal Dhaliwal said: This was the horrific, sadistic and tortured abuse of a completely vulnerable child of 18 months.
The investigating officer stated it was the worst he had seen in his five years in this role. He said other officers should not have sight of it. The abuse was beyond words.
The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the laptop and the hard drives.
Gonzalez must abide by the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, is barred from working with children or vulnerable people, and register as a sex offender indefinitely.