Locations
Cornmoor Road, Whickham, Newcastle Upon Type, NE14 4PU
Description
A Gateshead paedophile downloaded and distributed vile images and videos of children as young as one.
Pervert Cameron Sammakieh amassed a sickening collection of more than 1,600 photos and movies and shared some of them with others over the internet.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that the 24-year-old's disgusting stash was discovered when police searched his home in Whickham and seized three electronic devices.
As well as the images and videos, it was also found that Sammakieh had used depraved search terms in order to find them.
In interview, Sammakieh claimed he didn't have a sexual interest in children but knew there was a demand for child abuse photos and wanted to please others by sourcing and sending them.
However, he did later admit he was sexually attracted to teenage girls.
Now, Sammakieh, of Cornmoor Road, in Whickham, has avoided an immediate stint behind bars after he pleaded guilty to one count of distributing indecent images of children and three of making them.
Prosecutor, Neil Pallister, said Sammakieh started downloading the vile material in November 2017 and stopped in October 2019 - a year before his house was searched.
Mr Pallister continued:
"The defendant was present and a number of devices were seized from a bedroom and later examined and found to contain indecent images.
"One of those was the defendant's iPhone. Also seized was a gaming system and an 8GB USB stick."
The court heard that, during interview, Sammakieh admitted he downloaded the material but denied he had a sexual interest in children.
Instead, he claimed he wanted to please others so had shared them over the internet.
Mr Pallister added: "When asked why he shared them, he said it was a desire to be liked."
The court was told that in total, 200 images and 57 videos of category A, 171 category and 13 videos of category B and 1,216 images and 15 videos of category C were found.
Some of the photos of movies involved penetrative sexual activity with very young children and showed the youngsters "clearly in distress".
Paul Cross, defending, said Sammakieh had no past convictions, had pleaded guilty and was a lonely individual with a desire to be liked.
He added:
"He's had a very difficult early life - he was bullied at school. He was very tall and well-built. He was bullied for being big.
"He's actually a gentle giant."
But Recorder Margia Mostafa disagreed, saying: "A gentle giant is inconsistent with what he likes to view, basically children being abused."
Giving Sammakieh a 24-month prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, Miss Recorder Mostafa added:
"These images are extremely serious."In order to feed your addiction, some child somewhere has been abused and that is something you must, at the time when you downloaded these images, have known."
Sammakieh was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years and was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same period.