A man, Adrian Harkin, the Nottingham Paedophile, who disseminated obscene photographs of minors and had extreme animal pornography has been incarcerated.
Adrian Harkin, 34, was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday, January 21, after pleading guilty to eight charges.
Adrian Harkin, previously residing on Bath Street, Nottingham, was indefinitely registered as a sex offender and subjected to a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order as part of his sentencing.
He was apprehended in May 2023 when a woman reported to the authorities that Adrian Harkin had transmitted indecent photographs of minors using a dating application.
The court was informed that the photographs were unsolicited and that Adrian Harkin expressed a sexual interest in children and animals to the woman.
Adrian Harkin was apprehended, and several devices were confiscated. The matter was subsequently sent to a specialist officer within Nottinghamshire Police’s Internet Child Exploitation Team, where the confiscated equipment were examined and the scope of Harkin’s offences determined.
Multiple conversations were found on Harkin’s phone in which he disseminated obscene photographs of minors and engaged in discussions regarding the explicit sexual exploitation of youngsters.
His phone held more than nine hours of explicit videos depicting the horrendous mistreatment of youngsters as young as four.
More than 20 distinct conversations were uncovered in which Adrian Harkin was disseminating photos and discussed the exploitation of children. He additionally stated that he was seeking animals to mistreat.
Adrian Harkin pleaded guilty to a string of offences including:
- Making indecent images of children, namely 66 category A images and 143 category A videos
- Making indecent images of children, namely 52 category B images and 3 category B videos
- Making indecent images of children, namely 103 category C images
- Possessing prohibited images of children (53 images)
- Possessing extreme pornographic images portraying a sexual act with an animal, namely 109 images which were grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character
- Distributing indecent images of children, namely 33 category A videos of children
- Distributing indecent images of children, namely 5 category B images of children
- Distributing indecent images of children, namely 13 category C images of children
Following his sentencing, Detective Constable Tom Nuttall, who led the investigation, said:
“Adrian Harkin has deep-rooted sexual perversions and I am pleased he is behind bars.
“The material he possessed and shared can only be described as depraved – depicting the most serious sexual offences committed by adults against children and animals.
“People who download and view this kind of material may not believe they are doing any harm, but in reality they are helping to fuel a depraved cycle of abuse that causes immense physical and emotional harm.
“That’s why we dedicate so many resources to ensuring the people who are consuming this material are caught and safeguarding measures swiftly implemented.”
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