MARK BLACKWELL SENTENCED AT PORTSMOUTH CROWN COURT OVER CHILD SEX OFFENCES
Portsmouth Crown Court heard that 69-year-old Mark Blackwell exploited children approximately 10 years old over a period of seven years during the 1990s.In January 2018, Blackwell was arrested, and police seized his electronic devices, discovering that the videos in question still existed.
Blackwell was already registered as a sex offender and subject to an internet restriction order following a 2011 conviction on 24 charges related to indecent images.
When officers returned to his home on January 31—about two weeks after the arrest—they uncovered disturbing search terms and a photo of a naked child with a cartoon face on a new laptop.
Richard Onslow, representing Blackwell, stated that his client claimed to have 'strayed off the path.' However, Judge Timothy Mousley QC did not accept this explanation lightly.
Sentencing Blackwell to four years and four months in prison, the judge remarked, 'You are a man with a number of previous convictions for this kind of behaviour, and the images have been retained for a long period.' Prosecutor Nicola Hadley explained that Blackwell's victims were coerced into provocative poses in the woods in Hampshire, sometimes clothed and sometimes not.
The court was shown that, among the 76 indecent images, some included close-up shots of a girl’s genitalia and body.
Blackwell, who uses a wheelchair and is reported to be in 'deteriorating health,' was acquitted of charges alleging he assaulted two girls, and he denied taking the images.
The prosecutor also noted that Blackwell had been fined in 1972 for assaulting a girl under 14.
Mr.
Onslow added that Blackwell insisted he had 'taken the images without any sexual intent.' Blackwell is required to sign the sex offenders’ register for life, and a sexual harm prevention order will restrict his internet access indefinitely.
He was convicted on six charges related to indecent images.
