Anna McKone

Anna McKone, a trans-identified male, was convicted at Bolton Crown Court in January 2021 of distributing indecent images of children and two counts of downloading indecent images of children. McKone’s devices were found to contain a total of 175 indecent images of children aged five to 14 years, one image in the more serious category B and five other prohibited images.

Despite repeatedly offending – even after arrest – McKone, 46, escaped a custodial sentence and was sentenced to a three year community order with 50 days of rehabilitation activities. McKone was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.

Police raided McKone’s home in Horwich in 2019 after the National Crime Agency had received a tip off from the Kik social media site that someone had uploaded three indecent images of children. A phone, laptop and tablet were seized, then while McKone was on bail, police discovered that the same IP address was downloading more indecent images in July and August 2019. Following a subsequent raid, a mini tablet and laptop were also seized and a cleaning programme to delete images was found on one of the devices. The tablet had been used to search websites using terms such as “I’m a goddam paedophile”.

Local media coverage referred to McKone as a woman throughout – although like many recent cases (see here and here), readers comments question why a male person’s crime has been ascribed to females. The judge referred to the offender’s “difficult and complex background” – potentially yet another trans-identified male who has sought to blame gender issues for their offending or as mitigation for their offending.

Comment from local reader under the article

Image of Anna McKone via the UK & Ireland Paedophile Database

Media reports

The Bolton News https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/bolton/19050397.woman-paedophile-distributed-indecent-pictures-children/ archive