Man jailed over some of the ‘most horrific’ child abuse content ever seen by the NCA
A part-time DJ who fantasised about raping and murdering a child has been sentenced for making and showing some of the worst child sexual abuse images National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators have ever seen.
The NCA said Haitch Macklin, 38, sold access to his “horrendous catalogue” to other offenders via an encrypted messaging app from his home in Salford, Greater Manchester.
His collection included sexual torture videos of babies and toddlers and Macklin spoke of his desire to acquire ‘snuff’ films showing real-life murders. He also told another offender that he wanted to murder someone and film it.
Macklin admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and two of showing it, and at Manchester Crown Court yesterday (April 15) he was jailed for 20 months.
NCA operations manager Hazel Stewart said: “A team of officers viewed, assessed and graded the material Macklin sold access to, and all noted that this is some of the most horrific and disturbing content they’ve ever seen in many years investigating child sexual abuse.
“Macklin posed a very real and dangerous threat to children. Not only was he viewing and profiteering from indecent images of children, he was also harbouring thoughts of committing rape and murder. The NCA knows there is a direct link between offenders looking at abuse images and going on to commit even more severe acts.”
In December 2018, in an online chatroom using the name ‘UK Perv’, Macklin had advertised access to imagery via a server for a monthly subscription of £10.
Macklin – who was born David Bradley but formerly known as Haitch Bradley – advertised in various chatrooms, explained he was a paedophile and signed off one advert ‘NO MORALS!!!!’.
He sent users instructions about how to stream the material from his server.
NCA officers arrested Macklin, who performed under the name DJ Spook, in February 2019.
He had been arrested by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers in April 2018 in an unrelated investigation into indecent images of children. The NCA said charges relating to the GMP investigation are lying on file.
At court, Macklin was made to sign the offenders register for ten years. He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order putting stringent conditions on his computer and internet use.
Macklin’s sentencing comes at a time when the NCA has revealed there is an increased risk to children from online offenders during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It said offenders were seeking to exploit the fact that more young people and children were at home and online. As a result, the NCA says it has stepped up its pursuit of high-risk online offenders to ensure they are arrested and children are safeguarded.
In the past four weeks alone the NCA has developed and disseminated 1,060 online child sexual abuse (CSA) packages for police forces to investigate. It has also executed eight warrants against high risk CSA offenders, making five, arrests including two suspected transnational child sex offenders.
The NCA is also running an online safety at home campaign to those most at risk through the Child Exploitation and Online Protection command.
It estimates there are at least 300,000 people in the UK who pose a sexual threat to children.
The NCA and UK police arrest around 500 child sex offenders a month and safeguard about 700 children.
