A man found with 22 images and videos of children being abused has shown no “genuine remorse”, a court heard.
Mykal Owoo appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after being found with 22 indecent images and videos of children on his phone. Eight of the images and videos were Category A, the most serious, 10 were Category B, and a further four were deemed to be category C.
Ben Berkson, prosecuting, said in June 2020, police visited Owoo's home address, but were told he was at work. They attended his workplace at B&Q in Speke, and after speaking to his manager, he was arrested.
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The 27-year-old, of Oakdale Road, Liverpool, voluntarily handed his Samsung phone and passcode to police, and accepted using the phone to access legal pornography, but denied accessing any images of children.
Mr Berkson said: “He suggested he may have received images through the Kik messaging service but if that did happen he would simply delete them.”
The offences took place between May 29, 2020 and June 13, 2020, and Mr Berkson detailed that Owoo reset the factory settings on his phone four days prior. The sum total of 18 of the 22 videos, including most of the category A content, was around 17 minutes long, and there were “a large number of different victims in this case.”
Anthony O’Donohoe, defending, said Owoo has no previous convictions and has not offended since this incident. He said: “As a direct result of this investigation the defendant lost his employment at the place where he worked on the Speke retail estate.
“The case has weighed very heavily on the shoulders of this defendant, not used to the court system, it has been a great burden on him to the extent he has had suicidal thoughts. The court is unlikely to see Mr Owoo ever again, such has been the solitary experience of appearing before the Crown Court for offences such as this.”
In sentencing, His Honour Judge Brian Cummings KC shared brief details of the footage found on the defendants phone, including a video of child rape.
He said: “That is a factor which I am required to give significant weight to, and I do.” Judge Cummings criticised Owoo for refusing to fully accept his crime, and for delaying the sentencing by refusing to plead guilty until the day of trial.
He addressed the defendant: “You weren’t the person directly committing these appalling acts but you share responsibility because without people like you, the customer, the material would not be created in the first place, not least on the scale that it is. I cannot accept that you feel any genuine remorse for what you did.
“First of all it is apparent that you continue to deny any real responsibility, you continue to maintain that this material was sent to you without your desire, you continue to deny you have any sexual interest in children.” He added: “Up until the last minute you simply tried to avoid conviction.
“Had you pleaded guilty at the outset, had you made admissions at the early stage and admitted you had a problem, the position may have been different, but you took this case to the wire, to the point of trial.”
Owoo was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for the first count relating to Category A images, five months for count two and three months for count three, but to be served concurrently. A sexual harm prevention order and notification requirements were implemented for ten years. He was prohibited from using any device which can connect to the internet without informing police, and a forfeiture order for his Samsung phone was also made.
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