A paedophile began distributing indecent images online months after being released from prison.
Paul Riley collected hundreds of sick pictures and videos of young children being raped and shared these vile materials with other perverts over the Kik messaging service. The dad had only recently been freed from a lengthy jail term for couriering heroin and crack cocaine in a £1.6million plot.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this afternoon, Tuesday, that Merseyside Police received information over a Kik account which had been sharing child abuse images. The profile's email address was linked to Riley's home, which was then raided by officers on August 19 last year.
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An Apple iPhone was seized from the 41-year-old, with the device later found to contain a total of 304 indecent images of children. This included 36 pictures and 62 videos graded in category A, materials which show the most serious forms of abuse.
A further 36 pictures and 62 videos in category B were discovered, as were 146 pictures and 17 videos in category C. Riley had also downloaded extreme pornographic images of "adults having sexual activity with animals".
He had been amassing his sickening collection since May 2021, as well as uploading indecent images on eight separate dates between June 29 and August 6. Overall, he had sent 17 category A images, 11 category B pictures and videos and 10 items in category C to 13 other individuals.
These involved children aged as young as five, while one 12-second film showed a six-year-old being raped. Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting, described how a "series of lengthy chat logs demonstrated a keen interest in indecent images of children by both the defendant and the other users with which he was communicating".
Under interview, Riley "appeared to acknowledge the items on his phone, but claimed he thought they were of people aged 18 or over". He had no previous convictions until 2020, when he was handed 42 months for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine - having transported quantities of the class A drugs from Liverpool to Devon.
His release came on January 29 2021, but he has spent the past year since his arrest in custody having been recalled on licence. Brendan Carville, defending, told the court that his client has a "long-term partner" and is the father of a nine-year-old.
He added: "He is a family man. Obviously he has done everything right by holding his hands up."
Riley, of Sandy Road in Seaforth, admitted three counts of distributing indecent images, possession of extreme pornographic images, possession of indecent images and three charges of making indecent images. Appearing via video link to HMP Altcourse, he was jailed for two years.
Sentencing, Recorder Mark Ainsworth said: "Within seven months following your release, police executed a search warrant at your house. Once there, they seized an Apple iPhone and when analysed it was clear that had been used to make and then distribute indecent images.
"You must understand that the courts take a very serious view with regards to any indecent images of children. That is particularly the case with regards to the distribution of those images.
"The point cannot be emphasized enough - behind each one of those images is a child being sexually abused. It must be inferred that if it were not for the marketplace for those images, then the abuse would not take place.
"I bear in mind that in recent years you have spent nearly all of your time in custody. I am duty bound to pass upon you a significant period of imprisonment."
Riley was also handed a sexual harm prevention order and a notification requirement, both lasting 10 years, and was told to pay a victim surcharge. Forfeiture of the mobile phone was ordered.
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