Northampton man weeps as he is sentenced for possessing more than 6,000 ‘horrific’ child abuse images

A Northampton man has been given a suspended prison sentence after more than 6,000 child abuse images were discovered on his devices.

Mark Auburn, aged 38, of Ennerdale Road, appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Wednesday, August 17 after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of children and one count of possessing extreme pornographic images portraying sexual acts with animals.

The court heard that Auburn was arrested at his home on January 21, 2020 after thousands of indecent images were discovered on various IT devices.

These included 975 category A indecent images of children, 875 category B indecent images of children and 3,124 category C indecent images of children along with 1,439 extreme images portraying sexual acts with dead or live animals.

Ben Gow, prosecuting, said that a search of Auburn’s devices revealed the images had been collected over nine years, dating back to June 2010.

Mr Gow, addressing the Judge, said: “These are pretty horrible images of prepubescent children and babies. I do not wish to go into any more detail, Your Honour will have an idea.”

Emma Fenn, in mitigation, said that Auburn has no previous convictions and, despite having a “very complex childhood”, remained a man “of good character up to this point.”

The court heard that Auburn sought counselling for himself as a means to demonstrate to the court what he intends to do to rehabilitate himself and he imposed an “almost mirror” of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) by restricting what he can access online.

Ms Fenn said: “Nothing I will say will detract that there is a clear sense of shame and remorse.”

The defence barrister continued: “He has demonstrated that he is going to rehabilitate himself. He has done everything he can to address the underlying causes.”

Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking, sentencing, said: “You were clearly actively seeking that material, which depicts very young children in a really awful state of distress. Without abusing these children, these images would not have been created.”

Auburn wept as he was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. A SHPO was implemented for 10 years and Auburn will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.