August 2022 Blackburn teen sentenced for raft of child sex offences A Blackburn teenager has been handed a community order and fined £800 after admitting a raft of child sex offences. Junaid Iqbal, 19, admitted three counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children and one count of possessing extreme pornographic images portraying an act of intercourse or oral sex with a dead or alive animal. Appearing at Sessions House in Preston, Iqbal, of Lambeth Street, Blackburn, was handed a two year community order after admitting the offences, committed when he was aged 17 and 18. The court was told how between March 26, 2020, and April 23, 2021, Iqbal was in possession of almost 100 indecent images of children, as well as three extreme images depicting intercourse with an animal. He made 23 Category A images of children – the most serious kind – along with 35 Category B images and 41 Category C images of children. He also possessed three images showing bestiality – described on the indictment as “three images which portrayed, in an explicit and realistic way, a person performing an act of intercourse with a live animal, namely a dog, which were grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character”. After being arrested and charged with the offences, Iqbal was summoned to appear at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court on May 19, when he gave an indicated plea of guilty and the case was adjourned for sentencing at crown court and for a pre-sentence report on Iqbal to be prepared. At Sessions House on Tuesday, August 30, Iqbal was handed a two year community order and told to complete 40 rehabilitations activity requirement days. He was also made to sign the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and put on the barring list of the Disclosure and Barring Service for 10 years. He was also ordered to pay an £800 fine and a statutory surcharge within seven days.