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Sick Joshua Mahoney was also found in possession of a “paedophile handbook”, a guide to avoid being caught out when downloading illegal images. Yet the 34-year-old, who was found to have more than 1,000 images and videos, continued to plead not guilty despite contacting a counsellor and confessing.
He was jailed for 28 months this week. Prosecuting the case at Leeds Crown Court, Gareth Henderson-Moore said police attended Mahoney’s home address on Queen Street, Morley, on July 13, 2021, armed with a search warrant.
Intelligence had been passed to West Yorkshire Police that the IP address linked to his home was being used to download the illegal images. They arrested Mahoney and seized a Mac Book and computer hard drive.
Police found 817 category A images – depicting the most serious kind of abuse. Of them 113 were videos. There was also 430 category B images including eight videos, and 566 category C images including six videos.
In addition, they found 17 extreme pornographic images including people engaging in sexual acts with animals, and a dead baby. They also recovered the paedophile “manual”.
The court heard that Mahoney gave a no-comment interview to police, then continued to deny three counts of possessing indecent images, and one of possessing extreme pornographic images up until his trial at Leeds Crown Court had started in December last year.
However, he had bizarrely enrolled in the Safer Lives sex offending programme. Mitigating, Satpal Roth-Sharma said: “That’s his downfall in these proceedings. His saving grace is that he has admitted his wrongdoing in all of this, and admitted there is problem that needs addressing.”
She said it became an addiction and “a form of escapism perhaps” for Mahoney during lockdown.
Judge Ray Singh told Mahoney: “You stood there and uttered the words ‘not guilty’ when for two years you were admitting this to a counsellor. I have no understanding why on earth you pleaded not guilty. Some of the images have been described as being the most vile one could ever imagine.”
He put him on the sex offender register for 10 years and gave him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use.