Ex-army man from Lancashire who fought in Afghanistan found with ‘twisted' child porn’ | Preston Crown Court

A father caught with more than 100 indecent images and videos of children on his phone denied in court he had any sexual interest in kids.

Former soldier Matthew Keeton, who served his country in Afghanistan, claimed the material had found its way onto his mobile when he was high on cocaine and communicating with strangers online.

But, while Judge Paul Hodgkinson said he didn’t believe him, he spared the 43-year-old an immediate jail term. Instead he gave him a suspended sentence and ordered him to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Preston Crown Court heard that after a tip-off police visited Keeton’s address in Blackburn, where he lived alone after being separated from his wife and children, and took possession of his phone and a laptop.

On the phone they found 29 Category A images (12 still and 17 video) which are regarded as the most serious. They also discovered 14 Category B (eight sill and six video) and 64 Category C (63 still and one video).

Further investigation of the device showed he had searched for categories like “little children”, “incest”, “family porn” and “extreme and twisted porn”. The searches had been carried out on Google and not on the dark web, but he also accepted he had used the messaging app Telegram.

Prosecution barrister Andrew Gurney said Keeton admitted he had downloaded the photographs and videos, but he denied the laptop was his, even though there was nothing suspicious found on it. He told police he had been hacked and he said he had only used Telegram to buy drugs.

The court was told that amongst the material stored on his phone there were videos of a young child being raped, others in pain and suffering as they were being abused. One of the children featured was tied up and two other young girls were lying together naked on a bed.

But there was no evidence to suggest that once the images had been downloaded to his phone he had accessed them to view.

At one point, as the prosecution case was being put, Keeton, who had pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, began shaking his head in the dock. Judge Hodgkinson halted the hearing to ask defence barrister Lewis Bocking if that meant he disagreed with the charges he faced.

After a short break Mr Bocking told the judge Keeton apologised and had merely been signalling his “shame at himself when the details of his offending were being read out”.

Judge Hodgkinson asked: “Does he accept he has a sexual interest in children?” Mr Bocking replied: “He does not.” The judge added: “So how on earth have all these images found their way onto his device?”

Mr Bocking said mechanical engineer Keeton was a cocaine addict and a recluse and at times would be on his devices throughout the night. “He accepts they (images) were on his phone, but we can’t say whether by accident.

“He accepts he downloaded them, but he can’t recall why. He doesn’t have a sexual interest in children. I can’t submit to the court that he has that sexual interest. It is open to the court to make (its own) conclusions.”

Mr Bocking said Keeton’s excessive use of cocaine had begun when his mother had passed away. He had become reclusive and was using his phone “all the time”.

“Mr Keeton will not find himself before the courts again for offending of this nature or any other nature. This is quite out of character for him,” he said.

Keeton, he revealed, had earned three commendations during his 11-year Army service – part of which was spent in Afghanistan. He had also been on duty at the London Olympics of 2012.

Mr Bocking said Keeton, of Bolton Road, Blackburn, but now living in a flat in Bradford, had developed a cocaine addiction after his mother died. “It doesn’t excuse what he did and he wants to try and put this behind him.”

Judge Hodgkinson told him there had been “some discussion in court about your seeming unwillingness to accept you had a sexual interest in children - but you most definitely did have at the time you viewed and downloaded these images.”

He added: “Each of these images has a victim. That image that you have of a child being raped is somewhere either in this country or the other side of the world and it is the interest you have that fuelled that abuse.

“I recognise that you served your country and these offences are three years old and there has been no offending since. The question that I have is how is society best protected from you?”

He sentenced Keeton to 12 months in prison, adding that he had been “just persuaded” that it could be suspended for two years.

He ordered him to complete up to 30 rehabilitation activity days and a programme designed to deal with offenders who had an interest in children. On top of that he ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.

The judge also made him the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the next 10 years and police notification requirements for seven years.

And he warned him that he had been “fortunate” not to go straight to prison and said: “If you breach any of them (orders) you will go straight to prison.”