Paul Powell Dawlish Paedophile has been incarcerated for accumulating an extensive collection of child exploitation photographs and videos obtained from the dark web. Paul Powell, 56, installed a covert camera to surreptitiously record a woman in a lavatory.
Law enforcement confiscated computers from his residence and discovered that he had accessed over 50,000 photographs and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. Approximately 3,000 individuals were classified in the most severe group, exhibiting the highest degree of depravity.
The defendant from Springfield Gardens has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison. The judge stated that Paul Powell had developed a severe addiction to online pornography, which progressively escalated in extremity.
Prosecutor Mr. Nigel Wraith stated that law enforcement identified an IP address associated with illicit downloading connected to Paul Powell. In February 2022, they conducted a search of his property and confiscated several devices.
Analysis showed a large number of indecent images of children “downloaded from an extremely secure dark web network,” said Mr Wraith. There were 2,967 in Category A; 2,403 in Category B; and about 50,000 in Category C. He also searched Google looking for child abuse material, the investigation showed.
Police also found footage from a spy camera he had bought. Paul Powell saved footage showing a woman visitor using a shower. She had no idea she was being filmed.
The defendant pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornographic images and possessing prohibited images of a child.
Mr Warren Robinson, defending, said Paul Powell was a man of previous good character who had sought help for his behaviour. He had tried to stop before but had slipped back into his deviant habits. He had not shared any of the images and is sorry.
Judge James Patrick made Paul Powell subject to a sexual harm prevention order and told him to sign the sex offenders’ register. Both for ten years.
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