Wellingborough paedophile photoshopped himself onto child abuse images

A paedophile who photoshopped himself onto sick images of child abuse and shared horrific videos has been put behind bars.

Matthew Salmon was arrested in June 2018 when police raided his home in Kilnway, Wellingborough, and seized his phone after receiving intelligence.

In total more than 8,000 images were found - so many that a forensic analyst reached a threshold and stopped looking at them - including pictures showing babies and young boys and girls being abused.

Yesterday (Tuesday) Northampton Crown Court heard some of the pictures had been doctored to superimpose the 44-year-old onto them.

Prosecuting, Jonathan Dunne said: "He was asked to explain this and said it was just a thrill thing and it was personal to him...it was just a hobby in Photoshop."

Of the files analysed the oldest dated back to 2010 and the court heard he had traded images "on and off" with other sick-minded people since then.

Police found evidence that he had been joining groups of other people who would share them on Kik messenger and a cloud-based platform

They found messages on Kik which showed he was asking for images of children and found a web page for child abuse bookmarked.

A forensic analyst started categorising the images before reaching a threshold and stopping. Of those categorised 254 were in category A, the most severe, with 93 in category B and 175 in category C.

A total of 16 extreme pornographic images were also recovered, as well as one further prohibited image.

Salmon had also distributed a total of 61 videos of child abuse, the court heard.

When he was interviewed Salmon claimed he had been swapping images of adult pornography and "would skip past the indecent ones".

Mr Dunne said: "He said he was not searching for them and that they came through when he traded adult pornography."

He later admitted his sick actions but still claimed he got no sexual gratification from it, instead saying he just enjoyed the thrill of receiving them.

Salmon later admitted all charges facing him at Northampton Magistrates' Court.

Mitigating, Micaila Williams said there was "desensitivity" when Salmon looked at things on the internet and that he 'saw them as images rather than real life'.

She said he had since stopped trading pornographic images and that he was fearful of prison, asking Her Honour Judge Rebecca Crane to suspend any prison sentence and put him on a sex offender programme so he could be rehabilitated.

Ms Williams said: "It's been a sobering impact for him. He tells me it's been two years of hell for him."

But Judge Crane said Salmon's actions were so serious they could only be punished by a spell in prison.

Addressing the paedophile, she said: "You have denied any sexual gratification in children.

"That clearly isn't credible and is something you will need to confront in future."

Salmon was jailed for a total of 22 months and will spend half in custody with the remainder on licence.

He will be on the register for sex offenders for 10 years.

A hearing to determine a sexual harm prevention order application was adjourned until November 3.

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