Pervert is jailed for two years

Downpatrick man Ian Magill, who has convictions for two previoussex offences, was also given two years on probation and put on thesex offenders' registger for life after he was caught in possessionof more than 15,000 images of horrific child abuse.

Investigating officers have described the images Magill was inpossession of as the most horrific they have ever seen.

Judge Peter Gibson told Magill that the case "was one of theworst he ever had the misfortune to encounter."

The 59-year-old former museum worker, from Ballyhornan Road inDownpatrick, travelled to Thailand in 2002 where he handed over10,000 baht - pound(s)155 - to a woman to let him take sick imagesof her four children.

He then posted these images on an internet site for otherpaedophiles to view.

When officers swooped on his home last year they discovered15,229 indecent images of children. Hundreds of them were category5, the worst level.

"For my team of investigators and the guys who forensicallyexamined Mr Magill's computer, they are the most horrific imagesanyone ever had the displeasure to look at, " said DetectiveSergeant Peter Montgomery.

"They will certainly have a lasting legacy on anyone who had toview those images. He is without doubt the worst case we have everhad to come across."

Magill had attempted to use technology to wipe all traces of theimages from his computer, however forensic experts were able torecover them.

Mr Montgomery said: "We can't stress enough that people have torealise if they are committing these offences this organisation isdetermined to find them, trace them, arrest them and put them beforethe courts. No matter what they do to cover their tracks we will useevery tool to try and uncover their actions.

"This case clearly demonstrates someone who tried to cover theirtracks but we were able to uncover one of the most horrendous caseswe have ever had to deal with."

Magill's sordid double life can be tracked back as far as 1991when he was convicted of taking indecent images of a child. In 1995he was arrested for smuggling child porn from Europe.