A SENTENCING hearing has taken place for a man caught with more than 200 child sex images.

Leonico Marjoni was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday (June 5) charged with three counts of possession of indecent images and one count of possession of extreme pornography.

The 37-year-old was caught after police were made aware of a Category B child sex image being uploaded to Facebook by the defendant.

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Marjoni, Cricket Road, Oxford, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years.

Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecutor Mike Hollis told the court that on June 19, 2019, officers became aware of the indecent photograph uploaded onto the social networking site Facebook.

The email address and phone number connected to the account which uploaded the photograph was linked back to the defendant.

Officers then carried out a search warrant at Marjoni’s address, which was a multiple occupancy home, and seized four mobile phone devices.

On his devices, police discovered 149 Category A images, 46 Category B images, and 23 Category C images.

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He was also caught with 28 extreme pornography images which included the abuse of animals.

Officers found that Marjoni had received the images on WhatsApp.

One was found saved to his camera roll but police couldn’t establish if he had manually saved it or if it was saved automatically from WhatsApp.

There was also an internet search on his device for a website showing images of ‘child sex’.

Marjoni was arrested and interviewed twice but answered no comments.

Mr Hollis: “There was no receivable data from the telephone about the distribution of images so the Crown say this is a case only about possession.”

Defending Marjoni, his defence barrister explained that his client is a man of previous good character. He explained that a prison sentence would be ‘detrimental’ due to his wife and children as he sends money to them.

Sentencing Marjoni, Judge Ian Pringle said: “I believe there is a good prospect of rehabilitation and it’s quite some time since these offences were committed and you haven’t committed more since.

“I don’t think I need to pass an immediate sentence in this case.”

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He was given nine months for count one and a concurrent sentence for the following counts; six months for count two, three months for count three, and three months for count four.

Marjoni also needs to complete 30 rehabilitation activity days and 80 hours of unpaid work within the next year.

He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.