He must register as a sex offender for 10 years
An online pervert was caught with a “sordid collection” of thousands of indecent images of young children after “deliberately” using specific search terms to hunt them out and download them. Leslie Jones later tried to pretend that the images ended up on his computer equipment by accident but this was branded a “lie” and he was told: “Nobody has that many accidents.”
His behaviour was “wholly unacceptable” and he should be “ashamed” of himself, Hull Crown Court heard. Jones, 58, of Dundee Street, west Hull, admitted three offences of making indecent images of children and others of possessing prohibited images of children and possessing extreme pornography images of bestiality between April 19, 2021 and December 19, 2022.
The court heard that police went to the home of Jones on March 14, 2023 and seized a mobile phone, a tablet and a laptop computer. There were indecent images of children, including videos, on all of them.
There were 813 in the most serious Category A, 562 in Category B and 5,996 in Category B. There were also 478 prohibited images of children and three images of extreme pornography.
During police interview, Jones denied distributing the images or having a sexual interest in children. He had convictions for four previous offences between May 1999 and January 2011, including wounding, drink-driving, producing drugs and breaching a community order.
Billy Torbett, mitigating, said that Jones admitted moving the images to a secure folder instead of deleting them. “His conduct has been wholly unacceptable,” said Mr Torbett.
Jones had limited previous convictions and none of a sexual nature. “It’s rather regrettable that he finds himself in this position,” said Mr Torbett.
“Thankfully, there is no evidence of any of these images or files being shared.” Jones was employed by an electrical company and was hardworking, often doing long hours and working away.
Recorder Geraldine Kelly KC told Jones that the length of time that the images were downloaded and the fact that bookmarks were kept “puts the lie” to his denials about how the images got there and to his claim that he had no sexual interest in children. The images did not get there by accident.
“Nobody has that many accidents,” said Recorder Kelly. “You deliberately searched for indecent images of children and downloaded them.
“The reason for that is that you have an unnatural, perverted sexual interest in children. You should be ashamed.” It was a “sordid collection” of images and the sexual abuse that the children had suffered in the making of the images would stay with them for the rest of their lives. “With every download that you made, you contributed to that,” said Recorder Kelly.
Jones was given a 14-month suspended prison sentence, 150 hours’ unpaid work and 25 days’ rehabilitation. He was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and he must register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Jones was ordered to pay £150 costs. A deprivation order was made for his phone, tablet and laptop.
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