Wigan man had vile child abuse images on his computer

A Wigan man has admitted possessing hundreds of indecent images of children.
Wigan and Leigh Magistrates CourtWigan and Leigh Magistrates Court
Wigan and Leigh Magistrates Court

David Blackburn, 67, had 229 of the most serious photographs – ranked as category A - of children. He also had 71 category B images and 54 category C images of children, as well as an extreme pornographic image featuring dogs.

Blackburn, formerly of Church Lane, Lowton, and now of Warrington Road, Ince, pleaded guilty to four charges when he appeared before Wigan magistrates.

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The three charges of making indecent photographs of a child – for downloading the images – related to a period between July 8, 2011 and October 26, 2016. The charge for possessing the image of an animal covered February 15, 2016 to October 26, 2016.

Nicola Yeadon, prosecuting, said police searched Blackburn’s home after information came to light about an IP address there using peer-to-peer file-sharing software. Equipment belonging to him was then analysed, the court heard.

She said: “He does make admissions to the extreme pornography images initially, and he does then go further to reference that he had looked at some child images as well.

“That comes back with a considerable number of images – more than 200 category A images, 71 category B and 54 category C.”

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Mrs Yeadon told magistrates she believed Blackburn should be sent to the crown court, where a judge would have greater sentencing powers.

Magistrates committed the case to Bolton Crown Court for sentencing on March 21.

He was released on bail on condition that he did not have unsupervised contact with an under-18.

He was also told to report at a police station within three days as he had been convicted of sexual offences.