By Grâçia Ada Obi
A paedophile, Gerrard Charnley, who meticulously recorded his depraved fantasies in a “horrific” diary and openly professed he was “proud to be a paedophile” has been sentenced to 14 months. The secret book, which was discovered by police, was found alongside a list of children whom he wanted to rape.
His dark web activities led him to accumulate hundreds of thousands of indecent images, fuelling what became a “compulsive obsession.” The sheer volume of child abuse imagery and videos he possessed was so extensive that authorities couldn’t determine the full extent of his collection.
Liverpool Crown Court was informed on Thursday 2 January that law enforcement had visited Charnley’s home, on Coronation Drive in Widnes, on February 27 last year, confiscating a total of 12 electronic devices. Upon examination, these devices revealed numerous documents authored by the 52 year old.
Prosecutor Sarah Holt detailed how one document, chillingly titled “My Paedophile Diary” included entries with specific dates outlining Charnley’s intentions towards certain children. A June 2016 entry disturbingly stated: “I want to rape [girl’s name] some day very soon. I’m proud to say this as a paedophile.”
The diary further contained a list of Charnley’s preferred websites for accessing illegal images and a section labelled “preteen slags I’d love to rape.” Additional Word and PDF files created by him bore titles such as “Paedo Thoughts 2019.”
In the case against him, evidence was produced showing that the defendant had used his laptop to access the dark web and had bookmarked sites with disturbing names such as “paedo links,” “paedo bum collection,” “naughty kids” and “little girls.” Video playback history from the VLC Media Player app on his Samsung Galaxy tablet indicated he had viewed videos with titles suggesting child abuse content.
Additionally, he was found to have visited Reddit forums centred around “schoolgirl skirts” and “schoolgirl sluts.” Meanwhile, analysis revealed he downloaded so-called “paedophile manuals,” documents like “The Paedophile’s Handbook” and “How to Practice Child Love,” which purportedly offer advice on perpetrating child abuse.
Charnley was also discovered to have a massive stash of illegal images and videos: 15,081 pictures and 2,308 videos categorized as category A, depicting the most severe form of abuse, these included images of babies being raped; 17,383 images classified as category B; 169,968 category C images; and additional computer-generated illicit images and extreme pornographic materials featuring children.
Police did not categorize more than 230,000 further images due to the overwhelming quantity of material on his devices.
Under interview, Charnley claimed that he “remembered downloading documents such as a paedophile manual, but thought he had deleted it without reading it.” He also confessed his sexual attraction to children had “progressed through the years”, though he maintained it was a “fantasy in his head” that he “would never act out on.”
Myles Wilson, defending, informed the court his client sought help from Stop It Now, a charity aimed at preventing child sexual abuse, after he was detained, and highlighted Charnley’s “poor physical and mental health.” Wilson added: “He gives help to his elderly father, who has mobility issues and rarely leaves the house. The defendant does his father’s shopping.
“Clearly he had become obsessed with this type of material, almost a compulsion. He was open with the police in acknowledging that he has issues and that he finds children attractive. He does not want to be in this position in the future. He was relieved, he tells me, when he was arrested, because he realised that this chapter of his life was coming to an end.”
Charnley pled guilty to possession of indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images, possession of prohibited images of children, possession of extreme pornographic images and possession of a paedophile manual. Dressed in a grey suit and glasses in the dock, he received a jail sentence of 14 months.
The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Andrew Menary KC, delivered a stark sentencing, stating: “This court sees, sadly, many cases of this type. But your case, compared to others, is one where the nature of the material recovered and the content of the images depicted is truly shocking.
“There were so many images, something approaching half a million, recovered from your devices. I am told that there are 232,000 images which remain uncategorised, such was the sheer scale of the task. It is safe to say that your collection of images was enormous by any standard.
“You appear to have been keeping a diary of the sorts of things you would like to do to children. They are horrific.
“This written material demonstrates clearly that yours was not an idle obsession, but one where you were fixated on the abuse of children. I suspect that you were living a fairly solitary existence on your own at home. You have been in employment in the past, but not for many years.
“You do not enjoy good health. I have seen letters from your family which confirm that, in all other respects, you are a perfectly decent man who cares for members of his family.
“I have given very careful consideration to whether or not any sentence other than immediate imprisonment is available for this particular offending. It is often the case that defendants such as you, who have committed this type of offence, will benefit from construction intervention by the Probation Service.
“But there are some offences which fall into a category where the offending can only be described as particularly serious of its type. I am afraid that that is the position so far as you are concerned.
“I am satisfied that only an immediate term of imprisonment is appropriate to deal with offending of the scale and type described in this case where you have quite deliberately, over many years, sought out and collected a huge quantity of appalling material. Alongside that you have generated your own material, demonstrating that you have a clear desire to participate in the abuse of these children.”
Charnley was handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and required to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. Upon being informed of his prison sentence, he nodded and acknowledged his guilt, telling the judge, “I’m guilty. I’m sorry, ok.”