Martin Mannion 61

Description

A dad downloaded thousands of sick sexual images of children and stashed them on laptops and hard-drives in his family home.

Martin Mannion, of Springhill Court, Wavertree, amassed his "catalogued library of images" between November 2022 and March 2023. He was caught when police carried out an investigation into those using file-sharing software to make and distribute images of child sex abuse. One IP address, which was used to access a folder containing 4,461 indecent images of children, was traced to a Virgin Media account belonging to Mannion, 61.

Officers attended Mannion's house shortly after 9am, on June 29 2023, while his 11-year-old son was at school. They seized two laptops and two external hard-drives, found to contain thousands of items of child pornography.

In total, officers found 28 images and 30 videos of the most serious category A, four images and six videos category B, and 6,004 images and 54 videos category C. The images were kept in a number of folders on each of his devices, including one marked with his initials, and another called "photos to keep".

Mannion pleaded guilty to the possession of 6,058 of indecent images of children, and three counts of making indecent images of children (categories A, B and C). He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today, May 10, for sentence.

Christopher Taylor, prosecuting, said: "The content of these videos are sadly typical of the type of abuse that this court sees. In each of these videos, in each of these images, there is an abused child somewhere in the world. In terms of victim impact, it's a global trade."

Trevor Parry-Jones, defending, said: "During the time between his arrest and thereafter it has been extremely sobering for him and very difficult. It's of course not only difficult for him, but for his immediate family and his son. His wish, his hope, is that he can soon regain the trust of his family, in particular his wife and his son."

He added: "Having worked 40 years of employment for his family, for his son and his wife, he then went off the rails, and one can only look at his personal circumstances to see perhaps an explanation, an understanding that something changed for him.

"This is a man crying out for assistance. He needs it. He lost his employment as a result of his arrest, and many would say so he should. It had an effect on his wife and son. He gained two alternative places in employment and he lost those again because of the proceedings." He said Mannion, who has no previous convictions, had to rely on his brother for financial support as a result.

Judge Mark Ainsworth said: "It needs to be emphasised this is not a victimless crime. Far from it. Behind each and every photograph is a child being sexually abused. We may never know who they are, we may never know where they are, but the images show children being sexually abused, and plainly that's a matter that the public and indeed the courts find abhorrent, and rightly so. The assumption must be made that if it were not for people like yourself, there would be no marketplace for these images."

He sentenced Mannion to a total of 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. He also ordered him to complete two rehabilitation courses and 160 hours of unpaid work, and made a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).