There were 24 video recordings of children on a bus and 219 screenshots of children’ girl undressing on hidden camera on Richard Pooley’s laptop as cops say it’s one of the ‘worst cases ever’
A sicko who filmed a teenage girl as she dressed was later found to have ordered a child-sized sex doll.
Richard Pooley collected and downloaded indecent images of children, set up hidden cameras to film a teenage girl and filmed teenagers on a bus over a 10 year period.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Noble told Bradford Crown Court on Thursday, August 20 officers attended at his home in October 2024, having been made aware that an IP address there had uploaded indecent material to the internet. A search warrant was executed in November last year and items including a pen camera, a small camera, a number of laptops and a phone were seized from Pooley’s home as well as a USB stick and four external hard drives, report Yorkshire Live.
PC William Metcalf from the Bradford Districts Online Child Abuse Investigation Team said: “This is one of the worst cases of indecent images of children I have ever seen in my career. Pooley is a dangerous online sexual predator who had the most disturbing child abuse material in his possession.
“In every picture there is a victim of child abuse. We are committed as a force to protect victims of child abuse and will do everything we can to get justice for them.”
In total 768,064 images were discovered, however only a number of them were graded. The court heard that there were 7,309 category A images – the most serious category – 6,403 category B, 72,645 category C, 1,453 prohibited images of children and 169 extreme pornographic images were found
Ms Noble said: “They also seized a child-sized sex doll – a small one that resembled a child. The devices seized were downloaded.
“Officers also found 24 video recordings of children on a bus and 219 screenshots of children between 13 and 15 years of age. He was using a file-sharing software. At least 1,001 had a search-term relating to indecent images of children, including one that had ‘Six-year-old bedtime rape.’
“When the defendant was interviewed he admitted to putting a camera [in a room.] He admitted the camera caught her [a teenage girl] in states of undress and he would masturbate to videos he had captured. Officers found 207 images of the girl and 160 of those were screenshots as he had replayed them.”
In a victim personal statement, the teenager, who is now a woman and must not be identified for legal reasons, told the court: “It has deeply affected the way I view my childhood and ability to trust people… I feel sickened. He invaded my privacy when I thought I was safe. This has affected my sense of safety and trust.
“I feel that something has been taken from me…This has caused me lasting emotional harm.
“Since being aware of the offence I have experienced a decline in my emotional wellbeing. It has affected my ability to feel calm and secure. This has affected my confidence in trusting other people. I experienced ongoing stress relating to the investigation and the knowledge of what happened.”
The woman said she has been undergoing therapy and has ben prescribed antidepressants. She said she had just started a new job when she found out about Pooley’s offending and said that has been affected.
She told the court: “In previous employment I was a social person and felt more comfortable building relationships, but since starting this new job I find myself behaving differently. I throw myself into work as a way of coping but have not made any real connection with colleagues in the way I usually would.”
Mitigating for Pooley, 61, Andrew Walker told the court he had no previous convictions. A pre-sentence report, psychological report and references had been prepared for the court.
Mr Walker said: “He – to his credit – has admitted his wrongdoing as soon as he was able to do…You will see from the references that he was perceived as being a gentle, kind, hard-working family man. This has come to a complete shock to those who have taken the trouble to contact the court on his behalf.
“It shows there was another side to him, albeit on the exterior. He doesn’t know how on earth he got himself involved in this. He says he is not a stupid man and knows he should have looked away, but didn’t. He realises he has been stupid for that long period of time.
“He is a man who has always been in employment as a joiner… At the time of this offending he was three months off the completion of an IVA to deal with his debts. He had seven years left to pay on his mortgage. The house was in his ex-wife’s name and that has now been sold. There is no house for him to go back to. He has basically lost his home, his job and most of his family. He says he doesn’t intend to do this again.”
The court heard Pooley had admitted offences of voyeurism, making indecent images of children, taking indecent images of children, attempting to operate equipment beneath clothing without consent, possession of prohibited images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.