AFTER police found indecent images on a Stratford man’s computer, he denied downloading them, claiming he had lent the computer to customers when running an IT business.
But after further images were discovered on memory sticks and an SD card, Adrian Richards, who had also posed as a young girl on chat sites, admitted being responsible.
And at Warwick Crown Court he pleaded guilty to making indecent movies of children, three charges of possessing indecent images of children, and one of possessing extreme pornography.
The 60-year-old, of Sandown Close, was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to take part in a rehabilitation activity for 25 days.
In addition, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC ordered him to register as a sex offender for ten years.
Prosecutor Peter Grice said in July last year the police executed a search warrant at Richards’s home and seized a number of digital devices.
When he was spoken to after going to the police station, he denied any knowledge of indecent images of children and said none would be found on the devices.
But when officers examined his computer tower, they found four downloaded movies classed as being in category A.
So he was arrested in March this year, but again denied any knowledge of the images, saying he had lent the computer to clients at a time when he was running an IT business.
On that occasion the police had also seized a CD which had been overlooked during the original search. On it they found further indecent images of children, as well as movies and stills of extreme pornography showing women involved in sex acts with animals.
Other items taken by officers during the first search had included two USB sticks and an SD card from a digital camera.
On them they found further movies and still images
Matthew Barnes, defending, said the offending had taken place five years ago.
He added: “Although he was still in possession of them, the viewing of the images was during a very dark and sad period in his life.”
Mr Barnes explained until 2013 Richards had been ‘a conventional working man,’ but had then suffered a heart attack and had to undergo by-pass surgery.
“He found himself trying to recover at home, lonely and with few friends, and drinking too much, and he began to rely on chat rooms for company, and it led to these offences.”
Arguing for a suspended sentence, Mr Barnes added Richards, who was considered to be of low risk of re-offending, was the carer for his mother, who was in poor health.
Sentencing him, Judge Lockhart told Richards: “I am not going to send you immediately to custody, but you need to listen to me very carefully.
“These offences are grave. Young children have been abused by others and photographs have been taken, and those photographs remain available for people like you who obtain sexual gratification from them.
“Your abuse of those images is aggravated by the quite awful chat room logs you engaged in, and I am most disturbed by those chat room logs of you posing as a girl to seek out other individuals, identifying yourself as a female child.
“But eventually, when things were put to you, you did concede your guilt, you are a man of good character, and you had suffered a heart attack and lost your job and become dependent on alcohol to a degree at the time of these offences.”
