Former Wigan councillor who gave advice on abusing children and had thousands of horrific images is jailed

Bolton Crown Court heard today that Joseph Shaw had an “obsession” with babies, with the majority of images featuring tots aged just three months to two years.

He shared horrific photographs and videos, set up chat rooms where he claimed to have abused children and even gave advice to others.

He also installed CCTV cameras at his home on Dicconson Street, Swinley, to watch youngsters and chillingly spoke about wanting to kidnap a child from the street.

He was jailed for a total of five and a half years, after pleading guilty to 12 offences.

Sentencing, Judge Graeme Smith said: “One of the most distasteful aspects of being a crown court judge is the sheer number of cases I have to deal with relating to indecent images of children. I have many times sitting here described it as an epidemic of child pornography in our society.

“I have to say, in the five years I have spent sitting in this position, this is one of the worst cases I have seen.”

Shaw was first elected to Wigan Council for Labour in 2004 and represented Wigan West for three years, while also serving on Greater Manchester Transport Authority.

But, after stepping down following his arrest he was jailed for six years in 2009 - five years for possessing a firearm and ammunition and a year for having indecent images of children. A sexual offences prevention order was also imposed.

Shaw, 53, was still on licence when he started to collect thousands of photographs and videos of children.

Police received information he had breached the court order and officers from the sexual crimes unit went to his home in January last year.

He was arrested and more than 30 items were seized, including a tablet computer, eight mobile phones, several digital cameras and DVDs.

They were examined and thousands of images were found, along with chats on different apps between Shaw and other people.

Shaw used various nicknames, including one used to refer to his interest in necrophilia, and discussed child abuse.

Prosecutor Justin Heyhoe said: “His main obsession was with babies rather than older children. He was asked by the users if he felt guilty and he described it as a chemical urge men have, its nature’s way.”

Mr Heyhoe explained what was happening to the children in some of the photographs and images.

He said: “These videos show the children were suffering and obviously distressed as they were being abused.”

Shaw tried to “legitimise” what he had done by saying he was “lonely” when interviewed by police, Mr Heyhoe said.

Shaw was released on bail and when officers returned to his home on March 14 last year, they discovered he had installed a CCTV system with 500GB hard drive.

He claimed it was to monitor his car but in chats uncovered by the police he had spoken about watching girls in the street and wanting to kidnap someone.

Police secured a sexual harm prevention order at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court as they continued to investigate.

Shaw arrived at court today with a large blue suitcase ready to plead guilty to 12 offences.

He admitted having 3,114 category A (the most serious) indecent images of children between January 1, 2013 and July 29, 2019; 1,729 category B images; 2,251 category C images; 105 prohibited images of children and 98 extreme pornographic images involving people and animals.

Shaw admitted distributing five category A, five category B and two category C indecent images of children between the same dates.

He pleaded guilty to breaching the sexual offences prevention order on January 22, 2019 and on March 14, 2019 by having equipment for recording images.

He breached the same order between January 1, 2019 and April 10, 2019 by making photographic images of children under 16.

Shaw also breached the sexual harm prevention order between April 11 and July 29, 2019 by making photographic images of children.

A not guilty plea for another offence, where it was alleged Shaw had breached the sexual abuse offences prevention order by using the internet to access pornography, was accepted by the court.

Steven Swift, defending, said the judge had been given a lot of material about Shaw, including a pre-sentence report, psychological assessment and medical reports.

He said Shaw knew he would receive longer and longer prison sentences unless he addressed his offending.

Judge Smith said although Shaw took pleasure from boasting about abusing children, there was no evidence to say he had done it and what he said in the chat rooms was “simply fantasy”.

“But the abuse in the videos was not fantasy. There are real children and babies somewhere, I don’t know where, being abused,” he said.

Judge Smith said it was not the number of images that made it among the worst cases he had seen, but the nature of what happened.

He said: “It appears that you set up a chat room to discuss this sort of behaviour and you purported to tell others about abusing children. We don’t know if these others are themselves merely fantasists or if there are people out there who have been abusing children.”

He described Shaw taking pictures of children without their parents’ consent as a “worrying escalation” of his behaviour and said while it was “likely to be a mere fantasy” to kidnap a child on the street, parents who heard about it would have been “horrified”.

As well as being jailed. Shaw was told to comply with the notification requirements of the sexual offenders register indefinitely.