Sutton pervert who downloaded bestiality and child porn ‘frankly terrified’ of prison
A Sutton pervert who downloaded thousands of vile bestiality images as well as indecent pictures of young children is so “terrified” by the prospect of custody he won’t offend again, a court heard.
David Houghton-Karras was initially arrested at the hair salon where he worked on September 12, 2022, said Lauren Fisher, prosecuting.
Police received intelligence about uploads but there was no evidence he had distributed any illegal material.
There were concerning searches in relation to "bestiality" and "teens" on an iPad seized from his home, and his mobile contained three category A images of children, four category B, and two category C. His devices also contained 2,589 extreme pornographic images.
The material, which was downloaded between July 2019 and September 2022 featured the abuse of boys as young as seven-years-old and girls as young as three.
Houghton-Karras ignored police requests to come in for an interview and he was finally arrested at his new address three years later.
Chris Brewin, said Houghton-Karras, of previous good character, has “written a statement expressing his shame and remorse” and “understands how serious this offending is and how much harm it causes.”
A psychiatric report revealed he has suffered a "significant degree of trauma" and has a number of mental health problems.
Mr Brewin said he lives with his mum and is “frankly terrified of being sent to prison.”
“He is capable of being rehabilitated,” he said. “This has all been so frightening for him he is not going to be so foolish again.”
Houghton-Karras, aged 54, of Fern Street, Sutton, admitted one count of possessing extreme pornographic images, and three counts of possessing indecent images of children when he appeared in court on April 23.
On Tuesday, Judge Steven Coupland told him the images showed the sexual abuse of children and that "your interest and the interest of people like you extends the demand for that sort of material."
"The best hope of preventing you from offending is to take an alternative course today," the judge said. "The best way of protecting the public is to make you do further work.”
He imposed a 14 month sentence, suspended for two years, with 30 rehabilitation days.
Houghton-Karras was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years and a sexual harm prevention order was imposed for five years.