Scarborough paedophile Michael Bagley spared jail after downloading 1,700 indecent images of children - including 'one described as a baby'

Michael Bagley, formerly of the Merchant Navy, made over 1,670 indecent images of children – some as young as four and one who was said to be a baby.

Bagley, a married former merchant mariner, also shared some of the debauched photos and videos over the internet via the Telegram app on which he had lurid chats with other paedophiles, York Crown Court heard.

Police acting on intelligence swooped on his home in Gristhorpe in November 2020, but Bagley wasn’t in, said prosecutor Brooke Morrison.

He turned up partway through the search during which various electronic devices, including a Samsung tablet and two hard drives, were seized for analysis. Most of the devices were found inside a desk drawer in his study.

Examination of the devices showed that the pensioner had collected 1,677 depraved images of children, including 71 images rated Category A – the worst type of such material involving the serious sexual abuse of minors.

Of these images, 55 were shared out on social media, including four Category A images.

Ms Morrison said that analysis of the three devices revealed that Bagley had been searching for indecent images of children and incest since 2012.

When asked by police if he had a sexual interest in children, Bagley said: “Unfortunately, I must have.”

He claimed the chats he had on Telegram – including with a man who bragged “in revolting detail” how he had travelled to Vietnam and paid money to rape a 12-year-old girl – were “fantasy only”.

That same man had provided Bagley with links to illicit images, added Ms Morrison.

She said some of the children depicted in the illicit photos and videos were as young as four and one was “described as a baby”.

Bagley, formerly of Gristhorpe but now living in Harrogate, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and three counts of distributing illicit images. He also admitted possessing 13 prohibited or cartoon images of children and 15 images featuring extreme pornography, namely bestiality.

Defence barrister Alexander Leach KC conceded that the material found on Bagley’s devices was “of an extremely distressing nature”.

He added that Bagley, of Juniper Way, was otherwise of “positive good character”, citing his charity work and willingness to help others.

However, he had become “isolated and submerged in dark portions of the internet and…allowed himself to continue in the slide down into material of the most distressing sort”.

Since his arrest, Bagley had sought help from a rehabilitation charity to tackle the “underlying issues” behind his offending.

Judge Simon Hickey said the images collected by Bagley were “revolting” and the chats he had with like-minded individuals on Telegram were “particularly revolting”.

He added, however, that Bagley was hitherto a man of “unblemished character” and that, having worked in the Merchant Navy, he was now “entitled to draw on that good character”.

He said that Bagley had also addressed “your own perversion [and] you have recognised your own interest in children”.

The judge said he also had to take into consideration the delay in the case reaching court and Bagley’s “genuine remorse”.

He said that for these reasons he could suspend the inevitable jail sentence.

Bagley was given an 18-month suspended prison term which included 100 hours of unpaid work and a 40-day rehabilitation programme.

He was placed on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years and made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order mainly to curb his internet activities.