Published date: 16 December 2015 |
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A CROWN court judge today (wed) warned that those who believed they could view indecent images anonymously on the Internet could expect a knock on their door from the police.
Judge David Hale said that it was important that it was known that police were now licensed to use software which allowed them to examine peer to peer networks which disguised users and their use if the internet.
Judge Hale sentenced former Rhyl bin man Martin Adrian Johnson, 50, who had never been in trouble before, to three years and four months imprisonment, after he was traced under the new system.
He was arrested after his IP address was found by officers on a peer to peer sharing network.
When his home was searched, officers found hundreds of images on two laptops.
Johnson was found to have shared some of those images with others via Skype or Internet chat rooms.
The judge said previously people believed that they could use peer to peer systems with very little risk to themselves.
But the new system allowed the police to look into the transfers within peer to peer software.
It was very important that people tempted to use such software should realise that there was now a much greater risk of receiving a knock on the door, judge Hale said at Mold Crown Court.
Johnson, of no fixed abode but who at the time lived at Dyffryn Street in Rhyl, admitted a total of 17 charges including making indecent still images and movies by downloading them from the internet, and possessing them.
Prosecutor David Mainstone said the case involved 1,032 still images and 925 movies between January 2012 and February of this year, many of them of the worst category.
He admitted possessing extreme still and movie images involving sexual acts between humans and animals. The court was told that he had 583 extreme movies.
Johnson also admitted five charges of distribution of indecent still images which involved girls as young as the age of three either by Skype or through internet chat rooms.
The prosecutor said the defendant had effectively videoed himself exchanging images with other people.
If he had not done so it would have been difficult to prove that he had distributed images.
Judge Hale told Johnson: “You had acquired peer to peer software with a particular router that you thought would prevent anyone finding you. It didn’t.”
The gravity of the offences was that somewhere in the world, those children had been abused.
“They went through the greatest misery to provide you with your entertainment.
“I don’t suppose you every thought about that,” the judge told him,
Were it not for people viewing such images, they would not be made.
There was no evidence that he had put his library on the internet to be shared with others, but he had used Skype and chat rooms to talk to other like minded people and showed the images, the judge said.
Simon Killeen, defending, said that his client was a man of good character who had been married for 20 years and had four grown up children.
They had little to do with him, he lived alone in a flat following the breakdown of his second marriage and he worked for the local refuse service, but lost his job as a result of the investigation.
He had been spending between two and five hours a day on the Internet and Mr Killeen said that it appeared that loneliness and solitude led him to embark on the offences which led him to court.
The defendant had lost everything, and felt that he had very little left to live for.
Judge David Hale said that it was important that it was known that police were now licensed to use software which allowed them to examine peer to peer networks which disguised users and their use if the internet.
Judge Hale sentenced former Rhyl bin man Martin Adrian Johnson, 50, who had never been in trouble before, to three years and four months imprisonment, after he was traced under the new system.
He was arrested after his IP address was found by officers on a peer to peer sharing network.
When his home was searched, officers found hundreds of images on two laptops.
Johnson was found to have shared some of those images with others via Skype or Internet chat rooms.
The judge said previously people believed that they could use peer to peer systems with very little risk to themselves.
But the new system allowed the police to look into the transfers within peer to peer software.
It was very important that people tempted to use such software should realise that there was now a much greater risk of receiving a knock on the door, judge Hale said at Mold Crown Court.
Johnson, of no fixed abode but who at the time lived at Dyffryn Street in Rhyl, admitted a total of 17 charges including making indecent still images and movies by downloading them from the internet, and possessing them.
Prosecutor David Mainstone said the case involved 1,032 still images and 925 movies between January 2012 and February of this year, many of them of the worst category.
He admitted possessing extreme still and movie images involving sexual acts between humans and animals. The court was told that he had 583 extreme movies.
Johnson also admitted five charges of distribution of indecent still images which involved girls as young as the age of three either by Skype or through internet chat rooms.
The prosecutor said the defendant had effectively videoed himself exchanging images with other people.
If he had not done so it would have been difficult to prove that he had distributed images.
Judge Hale told Johnson: “You had acquired peer to peer software with a particular router that you thought would prevent anyone finding you. It didn’t.”
The gravity of the offences was that somewhere in the world, those children had been abused.
“They went through the greatest misery to provide you with your entertainment.
“I don’t suppose you every thought about that,” the judge told him,
Were it not for people viewing such images, they would not be made.
There was no evidence that he had put his library on the internet to be shared with others, but he had used Skype and chat rooms to talk to other like minded people and showed the images, the judge said.
Simon Killeen, defending, said that his client was a man of good character who had been married for 20 years and had four grown up children.
They had little to do with him, he lived alone in a flat following the breakdown of his second marriage and he worked for the local refuse service, but lost his job as a result of the investigation.
He had been spending between two and five hours a day on the Internet and Mr Killeen said that it appeared that loneliness and solitude led him to embark on the offences which led him to court.
The defendant had lost everything, and felt that he had very little left to live for.
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