Locations
Springfield Gardens, Dawlish, Devon, EX7
Description
A pervert from Dawlish has been jailed for amassing a huge collection of child abuse images and videos downloaded from the dark web. Paul Powell, 56, also set up a spy camera to secretly film a woman in a bathroom.
Police seized computers from his home and found he had been looking at more than 50,000 images and movies showing the sexual abuse of children. About 3,000 were in the most serious category showing the worst type of depravity.
The defendant, of Springfield Gardens, has been jailed for two years and four months. The judge said Powell had been heavily addicted to viewing porn online and the material became more extreme over time.
Prosecutor Mr Nigel Wraith said police traced an IP address linked to illegal downloads to Powell. They searched his property in February 2022 and took away a number of devices.
A pervert from Dawlish has been jailed for amassing a huge collection of child abuse images and videos downloaded from the dark web. Paul Powell, 56, also set up a spy camera to secretly film a woman in a bathroom.
Police seized computers from his home and found he had been looking at more than 50,000 images and movies showing the sexual abuse of children. About 3,000 were in the most serious category showing the worst type of depravity.
The defendant, of Springfield Gardens, has been jailed for two years and four months. The judge said Powell had been heavily addicted to viewing porn online and the material became more extreme over time.
Prosecutor Mr Nigel Wraith said police traced an IP address linked to illegal downloads to Powell. They searched his property in February 2022 and took away a number of devices.
Analysis showed a large number of indecent images of children "downloaded from an extremely secure dark web network," said Mr Wraith. There were 2,967 in Category A; 2,403 in Category B; and about 50,000 in Category C. He also searched Google looking for child abuse material, the investigation showed. Police also found footage from a spy camera he had bought. Powell saved footage showing a woman visitor using a shower. She had no idea she was being filmed.
The defendant pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornographic images and possessing prohibited images of a child.
Mr Warren Robinson, defending, said Powell was a man of previous good character who had sought help for his behaviour. He had tried to stop before but had slipped back into his deviant habits. He had not shared any of the images and is sorry.
Judge James Patrick made Powell subject to a sexual harm prevention order and told him to sign the sex offenders' register. Both for ten years.