Pervert filmed himself viewing child abuse images for his own pleasure


A father who filmed himself viewing child abuse images for his own pleasure also distributed other indecent images to “like-minded paedophiles”.
Matthew Bergin chatted online to other paedophiles where they discussed their ‘desire to abuse young children as young as one-years-old’.
Bergin lost his job at Anglian Water following bosses finding out he had been arrested in connection to possessing child abuse images..
The 45-year-old has a wife and six-year-old son at home, and claimed he was looking at porn sites when links online took him to indecent images of children.
Bergin’s house was searched by police when they executed a warrant in November 2017.
He gave a police officer his mobile phone and said: “This is all you will need.”
When the phone was searched, it had 19 category A still images and two category A movies, a selection of category B movies and photographs, as well as 77 still images in the category C, in regards to their level of abuse. In one category C images, the female child was as young as 13.
Prosecuting, Samantha Lowther said: “The defendant had taken a movie of himself, in that movie, he was masturbating to a photo of a child who was six to seven years of age.”
Police then looked at Bergin’s computer, where they discovered he had used it to search for indecent images of children and used a website to utilise the chat service, Kik.
He used Kik to talk to other sickening individuals about his desires, with one transcript detailing how Bergin and another user were talking about abusing children. They were talking about hurting babies as young as one, and children up to the age of nine.
Bergin was arrested in November last year and when he wasinterviewed by police he had told them he ‘accepted he had viewed the indecent images of children’.
It also came to light he had distributed a total of 30 images, including eight category A images and 22 category C images.
Bergin was called in again by police to be interviewed, on July 27, 2018, and he gave ‘no comment’ to all questions put to him.
He stood in the dock at Chelmsford Crown Court with his head down for most of the sentencing hearing
Judge Patricia Lynch said: “I have these cases come in front of me time and time again, and time and time again I say the same thing. People like yourself who like to view these images seem to forget these are real children, and as far as still images are concerned, children who are abused.”
She continued: “To put it into context, you yourself have a six-year-old son.”
Judge Lynch then scolded him for not looking her in the eye.
“The damage for six-year-olds, who are first of all assaulted, filmed and then live with the knowledge that they have been filmed,” she said.
“For individuals to get their kicks off watching it, defendants who cannot even look the courts in the eye.”
Bergin then raised his head to look at the judge.
She added: “Defendants who have looked down, looking down at their feet and looking sorry for themselves.
“What about those children? Did you think about them when you were watching these images? When you distributed them and the conservations with like-minded pedophiles?”
Bergin, 45, of Thorpe Road, Weeley, Clacton-on-Sea, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, for one count of making indecent images of children under the age of 16 and one count of distributing indecent images of children under the age of 16.
He was also ordered to carry out 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days and to pay a victim surcharge if it applied.
He will also be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to run for 10 years.