Southampton man jailed for possessing 47,000 indecent images of children
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William McDowall from Shirley Road, Southampton appeared at Southampton Crown Court today (June 17) after previously pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, possessing a prohibited image of a child and possessing extreme pornographic images portraying sexual acts on an animal.
The 57-year-old possessed more than 47,000 indecent images of children.
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Hide AdMcDowall has been jailed for 14 months and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.
He was also ordered to comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.
Officers arrested McDowall on July 30 2021 at his home address and seized several items, including two laptops and a hard drive.
Forensic examinations revealed he had 47,517 indecent images stored across these three devices from March 2012 to July 2021.
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Hide AdOf these images 9,294 were Category A, the most serious, which depicted babies, toddlers and teenagers being abused.
There were also a handful of images which depicted acts of bestiality.
In his police interview, McDowall admitted he had been viewing indecent images online for 20 years and described himself as a ‘lurker’.
PC Sarah Tickner from the Internet Child Abuse Team led the investigation.
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Hide AdShe said: ‘McDowall had an extremely large collection of indecent images and some children depicted were as young as 12 months old.
‘While he showed remorse for his actions, he clearly poses a risk to children and I am glad to see he is behind bars. He will also have very strict conditions imposed upon him when he is released from prison.’