Academic shared child abuse images with other paedophiles
A DERBYSHIRE man with a “glittering academic background” delved “deeper and deeper into the murky depths” of vile child abuse images.
Dr Alexander Shaw distributed sick videos of young children to like-minded paedophiles, Derby Crown Court heard.
The 28-year-old’s collection included the most serious category A which typically show young children being forced to have sex with adults.
Will Bennett, his own barrister, told the hearing how his client became addicted to pornography and ended up desensitised to the hideous images and clips he was viewing.
Jailing him for 30 months, Recorder Mark Watson said: “You say in your pre-sentence report you enjoyed viewing them, but then you went on to distribute them to other like-minded people too.
“You fuelled the market and these are not victimless crimes. Every video you viewed a child was being abused.”
Jonathan Dunne, prosecuting, said police were called to Shaw’s Heanor home and a second address of the defendant’s partner in 2018.
He said a number of electronic devices were seized and analysed.
Mr Dunne said in total there were more than 500 images or videos and extreme pornographic images which typically show people engaged in sex acts with animals.
He said: “There are distribution charges on the indictment relating to him sharing images over WhatsApp, but the police forensic examiner is able to tell us the dates and times they were distributed but not to how many people.”
Mr Dunne said in interviews Shaw, of Lockton Avenue, admitted the seized devices were his, but when he was told about the images and films seized, he answered “no comment” to the questions he was asked.
He pleaded guilty to making 118 of the most serious category A images. Shaw also admitted to making 174 category B images, 255 from category C and possessing 11 extreme pornographic images involving animals and humans engaged in sexual activity.
He pleaded guilty to possessing 22 prohibited images of children and to four counts of distributing indecent images of children.
The offences are dated between April 2016 and July 2018.
Mr Bennett, mitigating, said: “The defendant is aware that right-thinking people will view what he did as absolutely abhorrent.
“The fact that he has a fairly glittering academic background and a good job will count as little and this is a fall from grace for him.
“He was entirely in denial about what he was doing, he had developed an addiction to pornography that led deeper and deeper into the murky depths of the internet to the point that what he was viewing was truly vile images that he had become desensitised to.”
As well as the jail sentence, Recorder Watson placed Shaw on the sex offender register for 10 years and handed him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.