Stephen Huxtable 59

Description

A paedophile who amassed a 'mega file' of thousands of child abuse images was prone to hoarding due to his autism, a court heard.

Stephen Huxtable, 59, of Moorfield Road, Exmouth, downloaded and shared a vast collection of videos and images depicting children being raped and abused, totaling over 100,000 deviant files.

Upon arrest, he said: "I've never had a girlfriend, it's all fantasy."

He admitted nine charges under the Protection of Children Act and was sentenced to two years and four months at Exeter Crown Court.

Police intervened after an indecent image was uploaded to his Instagram in 2021. Released under investigation, he continued offending, including sending images and a Mega cloud file to an undercover officer.

The judge said Huxtable was effectively sharing access to a vault of indecent images and paedophile chat.

Phone searches revealed an enthusiastic interest in child sex abuse. Between September 2009 and January 2024, he downloaded over 17,000 indecent images and movies in category A, nearly 20,000 in category B, and 67,841 in category C.

Huxtable, a factory supervisor, also pleaded guilty to possessing 142 prohibited images of children and extreme images involving bestiality with a dog.

Defence barrister Tomas McGarvey said Huxtable had a recent autism diagnosis and anxiety, had lost his 25-year job, and that hoarding was an autistic trait, making him less culpable and entitled to a sentence reduction.

He warned that prison's sex offender wing would expose him to 'negative peer influences' and predators, adding: "It would run the risk of increasing his risk in future rather than reducing it."

Judge James Patrick said Huxtable had effectively 'shared the keys to a library of sexual abuse images' with the officer.

He acknowledged the mitigation and assessed Huxtable as posing a comparatively low future risk, but noted his continued offending under investigation and the crimes' severity required immediate imprisonment.