Marko Istvanic, a solitary South Shields paedophile, has been imprisoned after being discovered in possession of disturbing child abuse photographs and an over-hour-long film.
Marko Istvanic was discovered with extensive films illustrating the sexual exploitation of minors and had disseminated six category A videos online. The material he had gathered was so poor that a judge at Durham Crown Court classified it as among the worst he had ever encountered.
Marko Istvanic, residing on Eglesfield Road, South Shields, NE33, was sentenced in court on Tuesday for the possession and distribution of indecent pictures. The 35-year-old had admitted guilt to the offences at an earlier hearing.
Lewis Kerr, prosecuting, said police went to Marko Istvanic’s home on March 31, last year, and seized his computer and computer tower before carrying out examinations on them. He said: “The examinations recovered a number of images which had been downloaded over peer-to-peer software.” A total of 15 category A images were found and three images in category B. Istvanic had also shared six category A videos, 16 times online.
The court was told the material Istvanic was found with involved male and female adults abusing children and images involving animals were also found. Mr Kerr said: “In interview the defendant gave an explanation saying he was not sexually interested in children but was addicted at looking at the images.” Mr Kerr added that one category A video was an hour and three minutes long, with other videos lasting “some length”. Istvanic had also deleted and re-downloaded images a number of times.
Neil Bennett, defending, said Marko Istvanic is originally from Croatia and has no previous convictions. He said: “He is a man whose formative years were affected by social exclusion and an inability to form social relationships. He was bullied at school as he was born with a number of fingers missing from his left hand. That took a toll in his formative years and he has a lack of self-confidence. He formed an addiction to adult porn and that led to an unhealthy interest in him seeking out this material.” Mr Bennett added Istvanic “expresses disgust and shame in himself” and that the offences were committed while he was working remotely during the covid pandemic, which “increased his social isolation”.
Sentencing Marko Istvanic, Judge James Adkin, called the images and videos he was found with “utterly repellent” and that they were “some of the worst descriptions I have ever seen”. Marko Istvanic was jailed for two years and was made subject of a 10 year sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offender’s register for 10 years.
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