Hartlepool pervert downloaded depraved child abuse pictures and videos from dark web

Loner Neil John Hunter, 49, from Hartlepool, was caught with thousands of indecent images of youngsters that he downloaded from the dark web over the course of three years.

Teesside Crown Court heard some were particularly horrific and depicted torture of a young child.

Other vile images featured victims no more than “babes in arms”.

Police carried out a search warrant at Hunter’s home after acting on information they received.

Christopher Bevan, prosecuting, said: “A large number of indecent images were located across various devices and had been downloaded from a website.

"It was not an ordinary website that can be accessed through conventional browsers but through the dark web.”

Police found a total of 6,399 illegal images of children with over 1,300 in the highest category.

There was also a mix of still images and around two and a half hours of videos.

When quizzed by police, Hunter was evasive about how he obtained the material but claimed he had only gone looking for it in recent months.

Mr Bevan added: “However, forensic evidence demonstrated that those images had been accessed over a number of years.”

The judge, Recorder Taryn Turner, told Hunter the material was “vile” and people like him gave no thought to the victims shown in the images.

"They remain for years, decades even, traumatised for the rest of their lives,” she said.

"It beggars belief frankly that anyone could get satisfaction of any sort from viewing such material.”

Hunter, of Pine Grove, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images and one of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

The court heard he had a similar previous conviction from 2007.

Calum McNicholas, mitigating, said Hunter lived a “depressing existence” having never worked and possessing no friends.

He submitted it may be better for society to spare his client prison so the probation service could give him “the help he so clearly needs”.

But Recorder Turner said the offences were so serious that only immediate prison was justified and jailed him for 32 months.

She said: “It’s quite clear to me that you have an unhealthy sexual interest in children and particularly young children.”