Steven McLone 33

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Steven McLone, 31, was found with the explicit material on his computer after police were alerted to the illegal content that he was accessing via his IP address.

A man who was caught with life-like animation of children being sexually abused, as well as a vile video recording of a woman abusing a dog, has been locked up.

Steven McLone, aged 31 and who is autistic, was found with the explicit material on his computer after police were alerted to the illegal content that he was accessing via his IP address.

McLone was already known to police, as he was subject to a a sexual harm prevention order, when they raided his address in Middlesbrough in October 2021, Teesside Live reports.

Specialist police IT workers found:

- 1 class B image of a child (aged 5-7) being sexually abused

- 5 class C images of children (aged 9-11) being sexually abused

- 47 prohibited images of children

- A video of a woman sexually abusing a dog

Teesside Crown Court was told by prosecutor, Christopher Bevan, that McLone bookmarked the animated child abuse as a favourite on his internet explorer, and that one of the files he had downloaded was entitled: "My baby girls" and another with an inappropriate description of a child, aged two.

The court heard that when police arrested McLone, he told them: " I think I know what you're talking about. I was trying to download a film when I opened it. I saw it and felt sick and deleted it".

McLone, of Parrington Place in Lazenby, pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent images of a child; the possession of prohibited images of a child, and the possession of an extreme pornographic image portraying sex with an animal. Appearing in court via videolink from HMP Durham, McLone kept his head bowed throughout the hearing on Monday.

The court heard that he has a previous conviction for the sexual assault of a girl who was under the age of 13, and another sexual assault of an underage girl back in 2018.

Shaun Dryden, defending, told the court that his client is autistic and "immature" for his age.

Mr Dryden said that McLone hadn't been found with a large amount of illegal images, but that the probation service had found that he isn't eligible for a place on a sex offender treatment programme, because of his autism.

Mr Dryden said that McLone had told his probation officer that he is sexually attracted to teenage girls because he views himself as a teenager.

Jailing McLone for 10 months, Judge Howard Crowson told him: "I struggle with the idea that you were not sexually aroused by these images. Your previous convictions show you are aroused by young females."

McLone was made subject to sex offender notifications for 10 years.