Locations
Upton Road, Torquay, Torbay, TQ1
Description
A Torquay man fired an air gun after losing his temper with a group of noisy men outside his house. Mike McCabe hit one man on the arm, a court heard.
He was already under police investigation for downloading child sex abuse images from the internet and sharing them with other paedophiles on Kik Messenger. The 39-year-old of Upton Road appeared at Exeter Crown Court to be sentenced for the separate crimes.
He said he was very sorry and just wanted to get on with his life. But the judge jailed him for two years and eight months.
The judge said the most serious offence in the eyes of the court involved the discharge of the air rifle. It happened in June of last year when McCabe yelled at a group of men near the coach station to turn the music down.
They heard shots and the defendant appeared armed with a BB gun, said prosecutor Zoe Kuyken. He fired towards the group and hit a man on the elbow causing a small mark.
Police arrested him and McCabe said he had drunk four pints and been smoking cannabis. He said he had only wanted to scare the group.
The defendant admitted possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, three offences of downloading indecent images, distributing images and also possession of prohibited images.
In November 2023 police received intelligence from the National Crime Agency of suspicious activity linked to the defendant's IP address. The seized McCabe's phone and found almost 500 indecent images of children on his phone, 184 extreme images and five prohibited images.
A total of 346 images were in the most serious category of abuse and further analysis revealed 73 had been distributed on Kik. McCabe told police he was under the influence of drink and cocaine.
Martin Salloway, defending, said McCabe was "alone drunk and lonely" at the time and spending too long on the internet. He distributed the images to like-minded people and was extremely remorseful. "He is keen to get on with his life," said Mr Salloway.
Recorder Simon Levene said McCabe could have had the victim's eye out by firing the air rifle. He ordered McCabe be subject to a sexual harm prevention order as part of the sentence.