Blackpool pervert jailed for downloading indecent images

A convicted Blackpool paedophile who downloaded thousands of indecent images of children and even travelled to Italy to holiday to meet a young family has been jailed.

Matthew Monaghan, 42, of Brighton Avenue, Blackpool, was arrested after officers carried out a routine check of his electronic devices following a previous conviction for possession of indecent images of children.

During the check, which took place last May, officers found 790 images classed as category A - the very worst type - as well as 420 category B, 3,926 category C and a further 748 prohibited images.

During the investigation officers also found Monaghan had befriended a couple in Italy, who had two young children, and had travelled to Italy to stay with them for three months. He used this connection to obtain indecent images of their children.

On his return to the UK he continued to contact the children with voice messages.

The family had no idea Monaghan had previous convictions and was banned from contact with children.

He appeared at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday (May 3rd) to be sentenced for 11 offences in total, comprised of three counts of making indecent images of children, one count of possession of prohibited images of children and seven counts of breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

In total he was sentenced to 46 months in prison.

DC Mark Southwell, of the Management of Sexual or Violent Offenders team, said: "Monaghan has a clear sexual interest in young boys, as was evident right from the start of our investigation.

"He poses a serious risk and has shown that he has no problem deceiving people in order to create chances to offend.

"He is now behind bars where he belongs.

"We will not stand for vulnerable members of our communities being targeted by abusers like Monaghan and as always would urge anybody with information about this type of activity to contact the Police and tell us what they know."