PHILIP DAVIDSON, WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER FROM ROCHESTER, JAILED FOR CHILD SEXUAL OFFENCES

In October 2017, Philip Davidson, a wedding photographer and bus driver from Rochester, was sentenced to 16 months in prison after being found in possession of extremely graphic indecent images involving children and animals.

Davidson, a father of two, had used search terms like 'baby rape' and 'kiddy rape' to find these materials. He collected a total of 527 videos, some depicting children as young as 18 months undergoing serious sexual abuse, involving bondage and even sexual acts with a dog.

Maidstone Crown Court was informed that the most severe clips would require three-and-a-half days to watch in their entirety.

During the hearing, Judge Adele Williams stated to the 39-year-old, who admitted to possessing both indecent images of children and extreme pornography, that his offences were extremely serious, making imprisonment unavoidable.

“Those who commit offences such as these do not take account of the fact there are real children being subjected to real abuse in these images,” she said. “While there are those such as you who are prepared to possess such images, this dreadful practice will continue to exist. Your offending is very serious because of the number of images and because of their extreme nature.

“The search terms you were using can leave no doubt about the sort of images you were seeking. Some of them were babies.”

At the time of his arrest, Davidson was reportedly undergoing divorce proceedings and living alone in a one-bedroom flat. He appeared in court visibly upset, weeping in the dock.

Initially, Davidson denied downloading the indecent images when police raided his home on December 19 of the previous year, with his wife and children present. However, prosecutor Ben Irwin confirmed that the sordid material was recovered from Davidson’s laptops.

“It was of an extremely graphic nature of sexual abuse of very young children,” Irwin explained. “One movie involved a dog, and a category B image depicted a victim aged between 18 months and two years.

“These search terms used by the defendant highlight a deliberate and systematic effort to seek out the most extreme forms of sexual abuse of very young children.”

As part of his sentence, Davidson will be on the sex offenders’ register for ten years, and a sexual harm prevention order has been issued for the same duration. Additionally, he is indefinitely barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.