A former North Wales vicar who distributed some of the most vile child sex images has been spared jail.
Jason Kennett-Orpwood, 60, was vicar of Bistre at Buckley in Flintshire until his resignation in 1999.
Today he was sentenced after admitting 11 charges of distribution, making and possessing the illegal images.
While he avoided custody, he received a three year community order under which he must attend an internet sex offender programme.
Judge Miss Recorder Gaynor Lloyd said that if he breached the orders then he would receive a sentence of more than two years.
She told him: “It is particularly shaming for you given your profession and your standing in the community.”
He admitted making images by downloading them, possessing them, and distributing category A images.
The Recorder said that the starting point was three years custody with a range of between two years and five years immediate imprisonment.
She added it was an aggravating feature that he had been cautioned for the same thing although that was 15 years ago, and had conducted himself in a criminal way for four years.
There was a high volume of images, including movies, and he was involved with a group which shared such images, she added.
But she said there was “powerful mitigation” – his genuine remorse, he had an insight into his offending, he accepted full responsibility and was willing to take steps to tackle that criminal part of his character.
He had pleaded guilty at an early stage and had already taken steps to address the issues he had.
She said he could not argue against immediate custody but the court had an over-riding objective to try and stop his offending behaviour so that more children were not harmed.
Prosecutor David Mainstone said that police executed a search warrant at his home in May.
The defendant was in work and arrangements were made for him to attend the police station the following day.
But the alarm was raised that night when he told his wife he was sorry for what he was about to do, an urgent search for him was carried out and he was found with alcohol in a locked car in a pub car park in the Llanypwll area of Wrexham.
He was in hospital for three days, was then interviewed, he made limited admissions and said his interest was in post-pubecent boys, although the prosecutor said images involved pre-pubescent boys.
He was initially remanded in custody for his own protection but later bailed.
When later charged with distribution he largely answered no comment to police questions, although he did indicate that he had shared material.
Robin Boag, defending, said Kennett-Orpwood was a man of good character who had made significant admissions and pleaded guilty at an early stage.
The images had been deleted from his computer and those stored on separate memory sticks had been destroyed before last Christmas.
A limited number of people had accessed the images by email and a “drop box” system had proved to be a nightmare for him with other people looking at what was there and placing images into it.
It was not distribution for profit.
See- http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/ex-buckley-vicar-jason-kennett-10468936
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