michael hawkins Child Sexual Abuser

Oct 2010 Jail for paedophile who lived yards from school A PAEDOPHILE who lived just yards from a primary school was caught with some 17,500 indecent images of children on his computer.

Michael Hawkins, 39, of School Way, Leigh, was jailed for ten months, half of which will be served on licence, after pleading guilty to six charges of making indecent photographs of a child and four of possessing extreme pornographic images.

He appeared at Southend Crown Court yesterday for sentencing after pleading guilty to the charges last month.

Dad-of-three Hawkins, who has no contact with his children, hoarded thousands of images on his computer, CDs and five external hard drives.

The police were tipped off after a woman, who Hawkins allowed access to his computer, stumbled across them while using his machine.

Officers arrested Hawkins on September 20 last year and found the discs at his home, near Blenheim Primary School.

Among them were 1,361 images and 18 videos which were found to be of level four severity with 64 images at level five – the most serious.

Mike Warren, mitigating, said his client had been living a solitary existence since he separated from his wife and immersed himself in his computer.

He added: “There was no suggestion of sharing this information or these images.

While they were stored on discs, I would suggest they were not stored in a very systematic or sophisticated manner.” Sentencing Hawkins, Judge Jonathan Black said: “The young people shown in the still and moving images will grow up in the knowledge that men such as yourself will regularly view those images to gain sexual gratification.

“If it wasn’t for people like yourself, there would be no sexual exploitation in order to fuel this sort of trade.

“I came to the conclusion the only possible sentence I can impose today is an immediate custodial sentence.” Hawkins was sentenced to six months in prison, to run concurrently, for the charges of making indecent photographs of a child, and four months in prison for possessing extreme pornographic images.