Pervert amassed over 100,000 abuse images

A SORDID catalogue of more than 100,000 indecent pictures of children being sexually abused was discovered on computer equipment at an Oldham home after police executed a search warrant.

Expert analysts were only able to examine a fraction of them due to time and cost restraints Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was told, but at least 184 were category A images - the most serious - involving young girls aged between six to 13.

Three images classed as extreme porn, involving animals were also among the pictures and videos recovered.

Mohammed Miah (37), who admitted downloading the material, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, and one of possessing extreme pornographic pictures.

The court was told Miah had said he hadn't thought he would get caught, and had tried to avoid discovery by having a cleaner programme on his system to remove incriminating files.

Sentencing him, Judge Jeffrey Lewis told him: "Right-thinking people would be disgusted and revolted by images of this sort, and it is incomprehensible how anyone could subject a child to this sort of behaviour."

He said he was impressed however by his genuine remorse, and efforts he had made to address his problem, but told him: "My dilemma, given the enormous number of images involved, and the serious nature of many of them, is whether to to send you directly to prison, or show a degree of mercy."

Miah, of Park Street, Oldham, was given 18 months concurrent on each count, which Judge Lewis said he had only just concluded could be suspended for 18 months.

Programme

He also ordered that Miah, whose wife was in court for the hearing, should take part in a 50-hour rehabilitation programme. He will also be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

The court had heard that he had been drawn into looking at illegal images on his computer after using the internet to view explicitly sexual pictures.

Jon Gregg defending, said his client had not "skulked in the shadows" after he had been caught, and had made full confessions to his family, and at his local mosque.

He had also taken advantage of counselling.

Mr Gregg told the court that Miah is suffering from a cancerous growth in one arm, and has now accepted how wrong his actions were, and promised to change.

Judge Lewis told the defendant: "People like you provide a market for those who produce material like this.

"You can view it free, but the people who pay the price are the young children who are victims."