Investigating illegal violent porn a challenge, Shropshire police chiefs warn

It comes in response to a call for action by the loved ones of victims in high profile cases where online extreme pornography was viewed by murderers and rapists before committing a serious crime.

Detective Chief Inspector Alison Davies, of West Mercia Police, said: "There are a number of high profile cases which highlight the importance of police investigations into reports of the possession of extreme pornography.

"It is an offence to possess extreme pornographic images which threaten a person's life or imagery which depicts acts likely to result in serious injury and West Mercia Police will thoroughly investigate the possession of these images when identified.

"The nature of the internet can make investigating this issue challenging. However, I would like to reassure the community that when imagery of this kind is identified we will take action. We encourage anyone who comes across any extreme pornographic material on a hard drive or on the internet to report it to police ."

Shrewsbury rapist Matthew Gill selected his 14-year-old victim at random in the town having watched a number of violent rape pornography films on his laptop the previous night, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told. He was handed a discretionary life sentence for rape and attempted rape.

Killer Jamie Reynolds, who murdered teenager Georgia Williams in 2013, harboured an obsession with extreme pornography for at least five years.

Paedophile Mark Bridger looked at images of child abuse in the hours before he murdered five-year-old April Jones. And Stuart Hazell, who was jailed for murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp in Croydon in 2013, had searched for child pornography using terms including "violent forced rape" and "incest" before the attack.

It comes as internet pornographers were given a final ultimatum to put in place measures to block under-18s from viewing explicit content or face tough new laws to close their websites down.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he is determined to ensure that adult sites introduce age verification measures and the Government could pass legislation to compel them to do so if they do not agree voluntarily. But the move is a softening of the position set out by the Tories during the general election campaign when Mr Cameron's party promised it would legislate to put porn websites behind age controls.

Mr Cameron announced a crackdown on violent internet porn in 2013 and said then that possessing pornography that depicts simulated rape would be a criminal offence in England and Wales.

The PM pledged further efforts to crack down on child abuse images online, including forcing internet companies to block results for a "blacklist" of search terms. However, campaign groups say that the guidelines were too vague over what was or wasn't illegal.

Last year, Judge Robin Onions condemned the corrosive effect of online pornography after a schoolboy visited vile websites abducted and raped a girl of 10.

The boy, who was 14 at the time, stopped his victim as she walked home from school.He grabbed her by the mouth and told her not to scream as he violently assaulted her using methods he had seen on free porn sites. Judge Onions said he "used, abused then abandoned his victim" after repeatedly watching internet porn that "treats women as objects and not people" on his home computer.

The teenager's mother was reportedly unaware that he had visited such sites from his bedroom at their Shropshire home.