A child porn addict’s first words to police who raided his home were “I’m relieved to be caught”, a court was told.
Married Wayne Thompson was tracked down by officers from Cleveland Police’s Child Exploitation and On-line Protection team acting on information that his email address had been involved in downloading indecent images of children.
Officers from the Middlesbrough-based unit analysed the 34-year-old's computer and uncovered 227 images including movies and stills of some of the most serious categories A, B and C.
They executed a warrant to search his Guisborough home on April 10 last year and also his parents’ address in Loftus, where he had previously lived.
Prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court that Thompson, who was of previous good character, claimed he had never intended to download indecent images of children but they appeared when he was searching for music files.
Miss Haigh told the judge: “Significantly upon arrest he said ‘I’m relieved to be caught, to be honest, even though I am not doing it now because my phone won’t allow me to download to the website'.”
She said: “He said he found that he had downloaded images of 11 to 12 year old boys.
"Initially he felt sick but then he went back again and again and again and it was something that he described as an addiction.”
Rachel Dyson, defending, said Thompson had co-operated with the police and he had pleaded guilty in Teesside Magistrates court at the earliest opportunity.
He had received psychiatric care in his late teens and early 20s, and he and his wife would both benefit from support.
Miss Dyson added: “It is clear that he feels that some form of intervention would very much assist him.
"He acknowledges that there is an issue here and he needs help in addressing that.
“The pre-sentence report refers to him as someone who has a very narrow if at all any social circle.
"He has never had any intervention at all and he would very much benefit from it at this moment in time.”
The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC told him: “You say you found the images by accident but you viewed them enthusiastically.
“You, and more importantly the public, would benefit from you being given some form of supervision so that your problems can be addressed by the probation department.”
Thompson, of Somerset Road, Guisborough, was given a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years with supervision and a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning him from unsupervised contact with children.
He was ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years after he pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children between October 2010 and September 2013.
The judge ordered the destruction of the material seized from his computer.
No comments:
Post a Comment