Former Southampton Football Club Employee Sentenced for Child Abuse Images

Aron Marczylo, a former employee of Southampton Football Club, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to possessing over 6,000 indecent images of children, including category A images and videos depicting child abuse.

Southampton Crown Court heard that police tracked Marczylo to his home address in Shirley, where he lives with his parents, on October 25, 2016. A search of his home revealed a collection of child abuse materials, including 78 category A, 12 category B, and 7 category C videos. The majority of the thousands of still images found on his hard drive were also categorized as category A.

The court heard that Marczylo used a peer-to-peer search system to obtain and download the images. Some of the victims in the videos were as young as four years old, and some showed signs of pain and distress.

Marczylo's defense attorney, Berenice Mulvanny, argued that he suffered from depression, anxiety, and had been bullied as a child. She also mentioned an incident where his hair was set alight during his childhood.

Despite the mitigating circumstances, the court imposed a two-year suspended sentence. Marczylo was also placed under a sexual harm prevention order for five years and added to the sex offenders' register for 10 years.