Hendon man avoids jail despite secretly recording young child on toilet and having more than 2,000 indecent images

A Hendon man has avoided prison despite being caught with thousands of indecent images and recording a young child using the toilet.

Police attended Jamie McDougall’s home in November 2019 and May 2020 and seized his devices. Examination of them showed he had stored indecent images between 2017 and 2019, when he was aged between 17 and 19.

Across six devices, there were 1,093 category A images, including 886 videos, 449 category B images, including 255 videos and 1,038 category C images, including 131 videos. Chris Baker, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court the children in the abuse images were aged between three months and 16 years of age and there was “discernible pain or distress” visible in the images.

Police later found nine images of a young child using a toilet on one of his devices. The youngster was unaware they had been recorded. A relative of the youngster said in a victim impact statement: “I feel sick to the stomach about what he has done.

“I can’t stop thinking about it nor get it out of my head. I can’t say there’s been any emotional impact on (the child) at this point. I really hope (they) will not remember what happened due to their age at the time.”

McDougall, 23, of Mainsforth Terrace West, Hendon who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, possessing an extreme pornographic image and voyeurism. He was sentenced to 18 months suspended for two years and must sign the sex offenders register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.

Recorder Jonathan Sandiford KC said: “The voyeurism was a particularly unpleasant offence but it was not a contact offence and (the child) seems likely to remain unaware of it.”

The judge told McDougall: “You may think these are victimless crimes but the reality is what you chose to watch were images of real children being groomed, raped and abused. The fact people choose to keep on viewing such images means people elsewhere in the world and often in this country continue to churn out such material.”

Fiona Lamb, defending, said: “He has never been in trouble before. The offences are some years ago now and were committed when the defendant was much younger.

“These are often thought of as very embarrassing and mortifying offences for someone to come to terms with. He has accepted that he committed these offences because he has a sexual interest in children