Hartlepool man sent video of a man having sex with a chicken blamed friends' 'unusual' sense of humour

Mark Powell, 43, was arrested after police found the video by examining his mobile phone.

He said his friends had an “unusual” sense of humour and shared hundreds of joke videos and “edgy” material with each other including adult porn.

Teesside Magistrates Court heard police visited Powell’s home in November 2020 after investigations into another person and seized his phone.

Lynne Dalton, prosecuting, said: “The phone was downloaded and upon that phone was files of extreme bestiality, a video.

"It was one minute and 16 seconds in length and shows a naked adult male with a chicken.”

It had been forwarded from Powell’s phone to another number on November 2, 2020, and another in a bulk of messages in June 2019.

He went on to tell police: “I have friends with an unusual sense of humour who send me edgy stuff."

Mrs Dalton added: “He said he gets loads and loads of videos, different things off the lads.

"He said he sent them on to a couple of lads and then forgets all about them.”

Powell denied knowing he had the illegal video of the chicken but was found guilty of possessing an extreme pornographic image following a trial.

Neil Douglas, mitigating, said: “What Mr Powell says is he was receiving and forwarding various jokes, videos, photographs which in a certain context and certain company passed for humour.

"Mr Powell was, if you will, in the middle of this sort of exchange. Rarely if ever was he an originating source of the material.”

He said out of up to thousands of videos and pictures, just one had fallen foul of the law.

Mr Douglas said Powell was “distraught” at finding himself in court for such an offence.

He previously had no previous convictions.

"He has learned a very harsh lesson through this experience,” added Mr Douglas.

Powell, of Groom Terrace, Hartlepool, was given a 12-month community order and must carry out 80 hours of unpaid work in the community.

He was also ordered to pay £620 prosecution costs and a £95 surcharge.

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