Record details
Benjamin Merrill, 31, from Stonehaven Drive in Warrington, has been jailed for two years after admitting possession, making and distribution of indecent images of children, plus possession of prohibited images.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that police executed a search warrant at his home on 24 July last year and found him upstairs in bed with an iPhone 16 Max. The phone contained large quantities of illegal images of children, including at least 1,366 indecent images. Of these, 296 were category A – the most serious – depicting the sexual abuse of boys and girls aged between one and 10. A further 146,000 images were not fully checked; the prosecution said it could not be stated that all were indecent, but some were, and high numbers had already been categorised as such.
Merrill also shared indecent images with others in online group chats between March and May 2025. His messages included statements that he would “love to have his own boy” to sexually abuse and a claim that he had previously assaulted a six-year-old. One text read “we both need to lose our b**** for being paedos, looking at boys being raped”; another said “I’m a paedo. I’d go back to prison if I was seen.” He was also found to have collected seven AI-generated sexualised images of boys aged two to 12. Prosecuting counsel Cecilia Pritchard said the material made clear his interest in children and indicated “a desire to fulfil his sexual urges in real life.”
Merrill has no previous convictions but received a police caution in 2014 for possession of an indecent image of a child. In mitigation, defence counsel Adam Brown said Merrill accepted his sexual interest in children, had expressed remorse, and wished to seek help. He cited the death of Merrill’s mother in 2021, subsequent isolation, depression and regular alcohol use, which he said led him to experiment on the dark web. Merrill was described as single, in full-time work as a fleet coordinator, living with and caring for his stepfather who has health issues, and abstinent from the material and social drinking since the offences.
Sentencing, Judge Anil Murray told him: “You have no previous convictions, but you do have a caution, about 10 years before these offences, for possession of an indecent photograph of a child. Yours is a long standing and unhealthy sexual interest in children. You didn’t learn the lesson of that previous caution.”
The judge noted the high volume of images, the distribution, the period of offending, involvement in a sharing network, and the very young ages of the children depicted. He described the texts as “very worrying” and said Merrill had expressed a desire to fulfil his urges. On mitigation relating to depression and loneliness after his mother’s death, the judge said: “Lots of people are lonely. Lots of people are depressed. They don’t all share images of children being raped and sexually abused.”
Judge Murray concluded that Merrill posed a risk to the public, that distribution of the images had “crossed the line,” and that the case required immediate custody for appropriate punishment and deterrence, despite personal mitigation and the impact on his stepfather. Merrill was also made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and must sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
