It was the highest number that a court had ever seen for one case
Daniel Greaves has been sentenced(Image: Humberside Police)
Police found a huge collection of more than 114,000 indecent images of children – the highest number that a court had ever seen for one case – after a man secretly amassed them for more than nine-and-a-half years. The massive haul was among an even bigger collection of more than 22-million images, many of them also thought likely to be indecent.
The images of children were discovered after seven devices were searched. A total of 76 devices were seized but the sheer scale of the task in analysing them was just so vast that only seven were searched, Hull Crown Court heard.
More than 9,000 child images in the worst category were found. Daniel Greaves, 35, of Station Road, Patrington, Holderness, admitted three offences of making indecent images of children between October 9, 2014 and March 26, 2024.
Poppy Walker, prosecuting, said that police seized a total of 76 devices, including computers and mobile phones, but because there was such a large number of them, it was not possible to search them all and just seven were forensically examined. A total of 111,814 indecent images of children were found on some of the devices.
They included 9,139 in the most serious Category A as well as 12,945 in Category B and 89,723 in Category C. There were children as young as three to five years old, mostly boys.
Across all seven devices, the total indecent images found was 114,190. There were 862 Category A videos among those. The total number of images and videos on all 76 of the devices was 22,827,436 but it was not known how many of these were indecent.
During police interview, Greaves said that he had been accessing the Dark Web but he made no comment when asked if he had been using this for indecent images. When asked if he was sexually aroused by them, he claimed: “Not particularly.”
Billy Torbett, mitigating, said that Greaves pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and there was no evidence of any actual real contact with anyone over the images. “He is immensely remorseful about his offending,” said Mr Torbett.
“He is under no illusion about his offending. It’s an issue he needs to deal with. He needs to get out into the real world. It’s not an isolated incident, based on the offending period.”
Greaves had a degree in electronic engineering and he had been working recently in a well-paid job for up to three years. He had no previous convictions. He had voluntarily sought help and had completed rehabilitative modules.
Greaves was given a two-year suspended prison sentence, 200 hours’ unpaid work and 20 days’ rehabilitation. He was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and he must register as a sex offender for 10 years. The seized devices will be forfeited.
Did you know you can make Hull Live a preferred source of Hull news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here.