A bar worker from Warrington who was caught after downloading indecent images of children has walked free from court.
Aaron McHugh denied the allegations against him, claiming his electronic devices had been hacked, and he was due to face trial next February but changed his pleas to guilty.
McHugh began looking at child porn when he was 15 and the offences spanned five years ending in April last year when police called at his home.
Judge Ian Harris pointed out to the 21-year-old defendant that if people like him did not view such images there would be no market for them.
He described the market as “toxic” and said that every day children are being “horribly abused in order to feed the business of that trade.”
McHugh, of Robson Grove, Fairfield and Howley, Warrington, had pleaded guilty to three offences of making a total of 39 indecent images and one of possessing a prohibited image.
Alaric Walmsley, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court today (Mon) that Cheshire Police received information that the user of an email account with the user name of Aaron McHugh had uploaded suspected indecent images of children.
On April 6 last year he was arrested at his home and when interviewed denied knowledge of five videos and made no further comment. His iPhone and laptop computer were forensically examined and the images, including videos, were found in all three categories of seriousness.
Carmel Wilde, defending, said that the offending began when McHugh, who has no previous convictions, was 15. He had been physically and mentally abused and he had been bullied at school.
“Essentially he was in a dark place,” she said, adding that he has now started a new job in a Warrington bar.
Imposing a two year community order Judge Harris said that in a report McHugh told how he had got in “with the wrong crowd” and used nitrous oxide balloons and cannabis which the defendant described as “laced with God knows what”.
“His mental health suffered and his partner was unfaithful and he felt in a dark place.”
He ordered him to attend a ‘building choices’ programme and carry out 20 days rehabilitation activities and 150 hours unpaid work.
McHugh also has to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for five years and the judge imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same length of time and ordered him to pay £500 towards the prosecution costs.
