Pervert caught with 400k child abuse images
Fiend claimed he was ‘concerned citizen’ who was going to hand the pictures over to police
A PERVERT caught with almost 400,000 child abuse images and a ‘paedophile manual’ told officers he was simply a ‘concerned citizen’ who planned to hand them in.
Naveed Ishaq had downloaded a sickening amount of indecent images between March 2017 and August 2020, Bolton Crown Court heard on Monday.
The 48-year-old, from Bolton, had scoured the internet for vile images – as well as animal images – and used chat rooms where he would ask: “Do you have any child porn about?”
He was eventually rumbled as part of a nationwide investigation - before telling police he was shocked at the horrific material.
Ishaq was caught following an operation carried out by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which was investigating the sharing of indecent images of children on a New Zealand-based file sharing website called Mega.NZ.
The NCA found six email addresses registered on Mega.NZ believed to have been used by Ishaq to receive indecent material. Five of the accounts were traced back to Ishaq’s address.
Prosecuting Mr Connick said the NCA passed its evidence to Greater Manchester Police who searched Ishaq’s home on Langthorne Walk, Bolton.
He said: “When officers informed the defendant why they were there, he said he was simply a concerned citizen who had been downloading such images to show how easy it was.”
Ishaq was arrested by police, who seized an iPad, two iPhones, a desktop computer, another phone and a laptop.
He told officers further devices could be found at his home inside a washbag, which was hidden in a sofa bed.
Police carried out another raid and found the bag, which contained external hard drives and a memory card.
Officers found a shocking amount of indecent images of children, still images and video.
There were 31,307 category A images, 29,256 category B images, and 327,531 category C images - a total of 388,094.
Mr Connick said the images included children aged from just one-year-old to 17, adding: “Many victims appeared to be distressed and in severe pain.”
Police found 47 images of extreme pornography involving animals as well as a vile 120-page paedophile manual on ‘how to practice child love.’
Defending, John Harrison said his client was a man of previous good character who pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Judge Martin Walsh, honorary recorder of Bolton, handed Ishaq a two-year prison sentence but told him he would serve half of it before being released on licence.
Ishaq also must sign a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
“The amount of material here is grotesque,” Judge Walsh said.