A 61-year-old man has been jailed after taking secret photographs of schoolgirls at a bus stop and sharing them online with "like-minded people". Neil Campbell, of Hartnup Street in Anfield, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, August 21.
Over 400 indecent images found
Campbell was caught with more than 400 indecent images and videos of children, including 17 of the most serious category (A). He pleaded guilty to making 17 category A indecent images, 12 category B indecent images, and 457 category C indecent images. He admitted possession of all 485 of these images, plus 15 prohibited AI-generated images of children.
He also admitted distributing 75 category C indecent images of children to nine different people using an online chat platform.
Police search and chat messages
Prosecutor Ian Criddle said police searched Campbell's home on September 10 last year following intelligence. A mobile phone was seized and found to contain indecent images of children. Three laptops and a tower computer were also seized, and one of these contained further indecent child abuse material.
Mr Criddle said the images had largely been received from an online chat. He said 73 individual images had been distributed by Campbell to nine separate users on the platform. The chat appeared to be with other like-minded people.
In that chat, he had sent photographs of schoolchildren, young girls in school uniforms, to other users. These images were clearly taken without their permission and in a clandestine way, but were not illegal because the girls were fully clothed. The girls captured in the pictures were not pupils of the school located near Campbell's house, the court was told.
Denial and sentencing
Mr Criddle added that in the chat, Campbell said he would "service" girls as young as eight. Category A images found on his devices showed children as young as eight, while category B images showed children as young as six.
Campbell denied having a sexual interest in children. Desmond Lennon, defending, said Campbell was "unable or reluctant to accept this", adding: "It would appear that he's in denial about this particular aspect of his character."
Mr Lennon said Campbell realised he faces an immediate sentence of imprisonment and had not taken his position in any other way than as a serious realisation that what he had been involved in was completely wrong and totally abhorrent. He said Campbell had no previous convictions and had asked him to inform the court he was genuinely sorry and ashamed.
Judge David Swinnerton noted Campbell's previous good character and that there was no suggestion he had told his friends what he had done. He said: "I come back to the real concern: that you were photographing girls at a bus stop, and for that reason, in my view, you do present a risk to girls around your area. One way of dealing with that risk is by a sexual harm prevention order."
He sentenced Campbell to a total of 13 months in prison. He also made a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered Campbell to remain on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
