Shanklin man caught with bestiality and child abuse images

Paul James Norman, of The Rogers, admitted possessing an extreme pornographic image and three counts of making an indecent image of children, between August 1 and December 31, 2015.

Norman was arrested at his home address on December 17, 2020.

Police, acting on information received, attended and items, including his computer, were seized.

On initial examination of the computer, indecent images of children were found, said Gary Venturi, prosecuting, at the Isle of Wight Crown Court, on Tuesday.

Norman initially told police he was not interested in the types of image found.

A forensic examination followed, with 25 indecent images, within each category of seriousness, discovered. The children involved were aged between 11 and 13.

There was also an extreme image of a woman engaged in sex with an animal.

Norman's internet search history revealed a systematic hunt for such images, but he told detectives the computer was a second-hand purchase and suggested the pictures were on it before he bought it.

In 2006, Norman was convicted of a catalogue of similar sexual offences involving underage children, and was jailed three years.

A probation report suggested Norman has "a preoccupation and unhealthy sexual interest in children".

For Norman, Jonathan Underhill, argued his client would benefit from probation's intervention and said: "There is clearly an ongoing issue of his acceptance of a sexual interest in children."

When sentencing Norman, Recorder Malcolm Gibney, said: "You must have known being in possession and downloading such images creates a market for this type of obscene material.

"It is spectacularly damaging to the children who are victims of these sorts of crimes."

Norman was handed 12 months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 100 hours' unpaid work and attend 35 rehabilitation sessions.

The judge also made Norman subject to a sexual harm prevention order for an indefinite period.