Carl Mitchell – Southport

A three-time convicted sex offender downloaded more than 100,000 indecent images of children including some showing baby rape has walked free from court.

Carl Mitchell directed police towards a computer which police had missed during an initial search of his home, with the huge stash of child abuse pictures and videos then being discovered on the PC.

Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Monday, that Merseyside Police executed a search warrant at the 59-year-old’s home on Shakespeare Street in Southport on September 30 last year.

This led to officers seizing several electronic devices, after which he was arrested and taken into custody.

Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, described how, under interview, Mitchell denied having viewed or shared any indecent images of children but “made reference to a computer tower which had not been seized during the initial warrant”. This led to a second search of the address, during which the computer and three external hard drives were recovered.

On these devices, police discovered a total of 11,046 indecent images of children in category A, those showing the most serious forms of abuse.

These included 358 videos and sickening footage of a baby, estimated to be aged only six to 12 months, being sexually assaulted.

Also detected were 10,483 images in category B and 95,248 in category C, as well as 24 extreme pornographic images. Mitchell has 15 previous convictions for 28 offences, including matters of indecent assault in 1986 and 1988, but no appearances since 2002.

Appearing in the dock wearing a black biker jacket and sporting long grey hair and a beard, he was handed a 16-month imprisonment suspended for two years with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 20 days, a programme requirement and a 12-month mental health treatment requirement.

Sentencing, Judge Brian Cummings KC said: “There are four aggravating features in this case. The sheer volume of the category A material involved in this case, over 11,000 items, and even that does not tell the whole story. That includes 358 videos.

“Within the category A material, which in its nature involves penetrative activity, the youngest child was a baby. That is a very serious aggravating factor.

Your position is aggravated yet further by the other three offences. In particular, the category B and C offences involved huge volumes of material. In the category C offence, over 95,000 items including over 500 videos.

“Finally, you have two sets of previous convictions for indecent assault offences”