A pensioner and former teacher from Ipswich has admitted having indecent images of children on his computer – as well as a pornographic image of someone performing a sex act on a dog.
Michael Higgins appeared in the dock once more before Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday, where he pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent images of children and a charge of possession of extreme pornography.
Documents relating to the case show that the 75-year-old Higgins was found with one category A indecent photograph of a child and two category B images.
The extreme pornography portrayed in an “explicit and realistic way” a person performing a sex act with a dog. The image was described as “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character”.
What do these charges mean?
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the word “making” can be interpreted in a variety of ways by courts.
Meanings include, but are not limited to, opening an email attachment, downloading an image, and accessing a pornographic website in which indecent images appear by way of a 'pop-up'.
Indecent images are ranked in categories A, B and C with A being the most serious.
Category A images can include penetrative acts, while category B images depict non-penetrative sexual activity. Category C encompasses other indecent images which do not fall into categories A and B.
Judge David Wilson commented that Higgins, of Raeburn Road, Ipswich, had an “unenviable” string of convictions behind him.
In 2022, he was jailed for a third time for downloading indecent images of children.
At his sentencing in September of that year, Ipswich Crown Court heard that Higgins had been a teacher all his life and was forced to leave the profession because of his convictions.
The court was told Higgins, who was living in The Street, Wattisfield, had abused his position of trust as a teacher and unofficial photographer at Rosemary Musker High School, in Thetford, by making more than 15,000 indecent or pseudo images of 132 pupils between 1999 and January 2005.
He was jailed for four years in 2005 for 17 offences of making and distributing indecent images of children. The court heard that Higgins had superimposed his pupils’ faces on downloaded pornographic pictures.
Higgins was jailed again in 2016 for 12 months for five offences of making indecent images of children, possessing a prohibited image of a child and two offences of possessing extreme pornography.
Speaking on Wednesday, Judge Wilson commented that, while Higgins’ most recent offending is still serious, it is at the less severe of his offending history.
Higgins will be sentenced on January 13 next year, with Judge Wilson ordering the probation service to write an “all-options” report ahead of this date.
He warned Higgins that he may face a further jail sentence.
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