A paedophile football coach who kept nearly 500 sexual images of children and admitted he was “sexually attracted to girls as young as eight years old” has been warned he faces jail.
Appearing at Aylesbury Crown Court this afternoon (Friday) Marc Kenny, aged 45, of Misbourne Close in Aylesbury, pleaded guilty to three counts of making an indecent image of a child and one count of distributing an indecent image of a child.
Kenny, who was the welfare officer and director of football at youth football club Aylesbury Town Corinthians FC, was due to be sentenced today, but after hearing the cases of both the prosecution and the defence, judge Francis Sheridan opted to delay until next week while he considers the sentence.
Before adjourning the hearing, Judge Sheridan warned Kenny that he should expect to be locked up at next week’s hearing.
The judge said: “There will be a custodial sentence, it will be immediate.
“I regard this as a deeply, deeply serious case.”
What did Kenny do?
The court heard from prosecutor, Nigel Ogborne, how Kenny had a collection of nearly 500 child sex images and videos and would fantasise with other paedophiles about having sexual relations with young girls on messaging apps Kik and Wickr.
On October 29, 2020, officers searched Kenny’s home in Aylesbury, and when they found naked images of children on his phone, they arrested him.
After his arrest, Kenny admitted his crimes and told the officers he had been offending for the past nine months, before telling officers that he was “sexually attracted to girls as young as eight years old.”
The court heard graphic and upsetting details of some of the images and videos that Kenny had in his possession, including a 16-second video of a baby less than one-year-old being sexually abused.
Mr Ogborne explained that on October 26, Kenny shared an image of an 11-year-old girl being sexually abused on a Kik group chat that had 130 other members, along with a message that read “wow so sexy, and what a good girl she is.”
The court heard how the next day, Kenny shared the same image on another Kik group chat, which had 304 members.
Mr Ogborne said: “He admitted that he knew what he was doing was wrong, and he had undertaken child safeguarding training with the FA.
“He had a problem which he accepted he was unable to stop.
“He admitted he had been sent indecent images of a child and he had distributed them to others including a closed group where child abuse was discussed.”
READ MORE ABOUT HOW INVESTIGATORS CAUGHT KENNY HERE >>
What did Kenny have to say for himself?
The offender’s defence lawyer, Mr English, told the judge that his client is a man of “previous good character” and that Kenny was experiencing “enormous problems” in his family life after admitting his crimes.
Reading from a letter which Aylesbury Town Corinthians FC had written to the court, Mr English told the court how Kenny was seen as someone who had been “helpful” and “important” in setting up the club, and that its members were “shocked” to hear of his offences.
Mr English said: “There’s no suggestion of anything untoward having occurred within the coaching group itself, these offences have nothing to do with the members of the coaching group.”
The barrister asked the judge to consider giving his client a suspended sentence, reasoning “there are not an overly high number of images, they are not in the thousands” and added that his client Kenny felt “crystal clear” remorse.
What did the judge say?
After listening to the two lawyers, judge Francis Sheridan ruled out the possibility that Kenny would escape only with a suspended sentence.
Before passing the sentence next week, judge Sheridan asked the National Crime Agency to find out how many children were being abused in all of Kenny’s photos and videos.
He said: “These children are real children. Somebody abused them, this is not a victimless crime.
“How many children are we talking about? I have to know. The court has to have in mind the protection of the public.”
Setting a new sentencing date of Friday, July 16, Judge Sheridan remanded Kenny in custody and warned him to expect harsh punishment when he returns to court.
He said: “There will be a custodial sentence, it will be immediate.
“I regard this as a deeply, deeply serious case.”
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