‘I’m going to prison’, Northampton man tells police after they find more than 80,000 indecent images of children and dogs

A Northampton man has been imprisoned after police discovered more than 80,000 indecent images of children and beastiality in his possession.

Kevin Stilgoe, aged 65, of St Johns Close, appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Wednesday, September 14 after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of children and one count of possessing extreme pornographic images portraying sexual acts with live animals.

The court heard that police executed a search warrant at Stilgoe’s home on April 6, 2021 after they received intelligence that indecent images of children had been accessed at that property.

Quiana Fitzpatrick, prosecuting, said that a laptop and 19 USB sticks found in the defendant’s bedside table were seized by police to be assessed.

The court heard that Stilgoe told officers at the time of the search, “I am going to prison. There are millions on there,” and “In real life, I have never looked at a child inappropriately.”

A total of 82,992 indecent images and videos of children - accumulated between January 2014 and April 2021 - were discovered on Stilgoe’s devices, which included the torture of victims as young as babies, the court heard. A further nine images were found depicting sexual acts being carried out on a dog.

Ms Fitzpatrick told the court that Stilgoe deliberately sought out these images with search terms such as “nude girls in Northampton” and “mum and son incest,” and used software so that he could anonymously access the internet to look for the images.

The prosecution barrister added that Silgoe had also sorted all the images into labelled files so that he could easily access what he was looking for.

The court heard that the defendant was interviewed twice and made full admissions to his offending.

Stilgoe has previous convictions for anti-social behaviour but no previous convictions related to sexual violence, the court heard.

William Forber-Heyward, in mitigation, said Stilgoe had written a letter to the court, outlining a significant amount of charity work he has done over the years, raising thousands of pounds for the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK.

The defence barrister said that Silgoe had been signed off work due to “stress and anxiety” and has referred himself to a course called ‘Stop It Now’, which deals with accessing indecent images and offending with young children.

Mr Forber-Heyward said: “He is someone who has indicated he is willing to address the issues around his offending behaviour and wants to know why it is he did what he did.”

The court heard that the offending follows an incident, where threats of sexual violence were made towards members of Stilgoe’s family at a local pub and the defendant, as a result, became a “recluse.”

His Honour Judge Mayo DL said: “What I find particularly chilling about this case is the fact that you almost bankrupted yourself to pay fees to get these images and videos.

He added: “These children - each and every one of them - were being abused by the people making those films for people like you.

“What I find particularly concerning is your complete lack of understanding of what you are doing is amounting to the serious abuse of children.”

Stilgoe was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment and a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) was imposed. He will additionally be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

Judge Mayo ordered for the forfeiture and destruction of the laptop and USB storage devices seized by police.