A Cambridgeshire man a judge called ‘depraved’ for his ‘deeply disturbing’ acts has been sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court.

Shaun Bolingbroke who is from Wisbech, now of Church Close, King’s Lynn, pleaded guilty to having intercourse with a pet dog and possessing extreme images of the act.

He denied the rape of a child under the age of 13 but was convicted in May this year and sentenced for all his crimes on Tuesday, July 23. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Grace Ong, prosecuting, said the 32-year-old took a video and an “extreme pornographic image” of himself having sex with the white British bulldog in 2016, which were recovered from his phone by police. Ms Ong said the dog died before the trial took place.

Bolingbroke was arrested in October 2020 and two phones were later seized. He stared straight forward throughout his sentencing and only spoke to confirm his name.

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His defence, Charles Myatt, said: “He really does take full responsibility for what he has done. He turned up to court today knowing that he is going to receive a significant sentence and simply wishes to receive that.”

His Honour Judge Grey noted at the outset that Bolingbroke had no previous convictions and said he would take him as a “man of prior good character”.

“This is plainly a deeply disturbing set of offences for a court to have to deal with,” Judge Grey continued.

“The act of intercourse with an animal is an offence on its own. You are unlikely ever to be fit to spend any time with a child.

“Your actions were depraved. Your continued denial of sexual offending and your denial of obvious sexual attraction [to children].

“You have what appears to me to be an evident inability to accept the enormity of what you did. It will be difficult if not impossible for the authorities working with you unless you start to tell the truth about what you did to them and indeed yourself.”

He sentenced Bolingbroke to 22 years for the counts of intercourse with an animal, possession of extreme photos, rape of a child under the age of 13 and other charges. The man has also been placed on the sex offenders register and will be prohibited from working with children and other vulnerable groups.