Taxi Driver Online

A TAXI driver on the school run who watched child porn has been jailed after his partner turned him in to police.

Paul McKenna’s partner, Julie Pickering, took action when she discovered his cache of illegal sex videos on their home computer, said Alexander Menary, prosecuting.

York Crown Court heard that the 37-year-old’s long-term addiction to adult pornography had led him to actively search the internet for child pornography when his relationship with her turned sour.

Defence barrister Andrew Semple said that since his arrest, matters between the couple had improved and she was in the public gallery at York Crown Court supporting him as he was jailed for six months.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said: “The images generally on these videos were in my judgement, very degrading.

“The children appear to have been desensitized to what was being done to them.

“Your explanation to the probation officer that you were effectively collating material with a view to handing it into the police I utterly reject.

“In this case I simply cannot avoid custody. These images were too disturbing and too serious to overlook.”

McKenna, of Swinerton Avenue, off Leeman Road, York, pleaded guilty to four charges of making child porn and one of possessing child porn.

He was put on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

Mr Menary said Miss Pickering became suspicious when McKenna’s behaviour changed after the couple bought a home computer in May. Checking computer files, she found the child porn and contacted police.

Of the 22 videos, 12 were hard-core including one at the highest level of the child porn scale. When he downloaded them, McKenna was a taxi driver “engaged regularly on the school run.”

Mr Semple said that McKenna had provided taxi services for “all strata of society” and had lost that job after his arrest. “He is a timid man who avoided confrontation with his partner and hid himself in his room, looking at increasingly pornographic images,” said the barrister.

The court heard that after an abusive upbringing and bullying at school, McKenna had joined a group of men interested in adult pornography. That led to him being fascinated by explicit material for 19 years before he turned to child porn.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council, which manages taxi licensing in the city, said Mr McKenna would not be able to continue private hire driving upon his release.

“We were informed by the police at an early stage of the investigation under the ‘notifiable occupations procedures’ and put in place the necessary measures to protect the public,” she said.

“This included suspending Mr McKenna’s licence.

“Now that the case has concluded, we will be revoking his licence.

“Our rigorous vetting procedures and Criminal Records Bureau checks would prevent someone convicted of this type of offence from successfully applying for a licence again in the future.”