Marko Istvanic 37

Description

A loner paedophile who was found with horrific child abuse images as well as a video which lasted over an hour has been caged.

Marko Istvanic was found in possession of lengthy videos depicting the sexual abuse of children and had distributed six category A videos online. The material he had collected was so bad, a judge at Durham Crown Court described them as some of the worst he'd ever heard of.

Istvanic, of Eglesfield Road, South Shields, appeared at the court on Tuesday to be sentenced for the possession and distribution of indecent images. The 35-year-old had pleaded guilty to the offences at a previous hearing. 

Lewis Kerr, prosecuting, said police went to Istvanic's home on March 31, last year, and seized his computer and computer tower before carrying out examinations on them. He said: "The examinations recovered a number of images which had been downloaded over peer-to-peer software." A total of 15 category A images were found and three images in category B. Istvanic had also shared six category A videos, 16 times online.

The court was told the material Istvanic was found with involved male and female adults abusing children and images involving animals were also found. Mr Kerr said: "In interview the defendant gave an explanation saying he was not sexually interested in children but was addicted at looking at the images." Mr Kerr added that one category A video was an hour and three minutes long, with other videos lasting "some length". Istvanic had also deleted and re-downloaded images a number of times.

Neil Bennett, defending, said Istvanic is originally from Croatia and has no previous convictions. He said: "He is a man whose formative years were affected by social exclusion and an inability to form social relationships. He was bullied at school as he was born with a number of fingers missing from his left hand. That took a toll in his formative years and he has a lack of self-confidence. He formed an addiction to adult porn and that led to an unhealthy interest in him seeking out this material." Mr Bennett added Istvanic "expresses disgust and shame in himself" and that the offences were committed while he was working remotely during the covid pandemic, which "increased his social isolation".

Sentencing Istvanic, Judge James Adkin, called the images and videos he was found with "utterly repellent" and that they were "some of the worst descriptions I have ever seen". Istvanic was jailed for two years and was made subject of a 10 year sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offender's register for 10 years.