Richard Pooley, 61, admitted a series of offences including voyeurism and making indecent images of children after police discovered a child-sized sex doll and hundreds of thousands of abuse images at his home.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Noble told Bradford Crown Court on Thursday, August 20 that officers attended Pooley's home in October 2024 after being made aware that an IP address there had uploaded indecent material to the internet. A search warrant was executed in November last year, and items including a pen camera, a small camera, laptops, a phone, a USB stick and four external hard drives were seized.
Officers found child-like sex doll and hidden camera footage
Ms Noble said: "They also seized a child-sized sex doll - a small one that resembled a child. The devices seized were downloaded." Officers also found 24 video recordings of children on a bus and 219 screenshots of children between 13 and 15 years of age. He was using file-sharing software, and at least 1,001 of his search terms related to indecent images of children, including one that had 'Six-year-old bedtime rape.'
In total, 768,064 images were discovered, though only a number of them were graded. The court heard there were 7,309 category A images - the most serious category - 6,403 category B, 72,645 category C, 1,453 prohibited images of children and 169 extreme pornographic images.
Victim describes lasting emotional harm
When interviewed, Pooley admitted to putting a camera in a room and to catching a teenage girl in states of undress, saying he would masturbate to videos he had captured. Officers found 207 images of the girl, 160 of which were screenshots as he had replayed them.
In a victim personal statement, the teenager, who is now a woman and must not be identified for legal reasons, told the court: "It has deeply affected the way I view my childhood and ability to trust people... I feel sickened. He invaded my privacy when I thought I was safe. This has affected my sense of safety and trust." She said she has been undergoing therapy and has been prescribed antidepressants, and that her new job has been affected.
Police describe case as one of worst ever seen
PC William Metcalf from the Bradford Districts Online Child Abuse Investigation Team said: "This is one of the worst cases of indecent images of children I have ever seen in my career. Pooley is a dangerous online sexual predator who had the most disturbing child abuse material in his possession."
Mitigating for Pooley, Andrew Walker told the court he had no previous convictions and that a pre-sentence report, psychological report and references had been prepared. Mr Walker said: "He - to his credit - has admitted his wrongdoing as soon as he was able to do... He has basically lost his home, his job and most of his family. He says he doesn't intend to do this again."
The court heard Pooley had admitted offences of voyeurism, making indecent images of children, taking indecent images of children, attempting to operate equipment beneath clothing without consent, possession of prohibited images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.
