Published date: 08 July 2016 |
Published by: Staff reporterRead more articles by Staff reporterEmail reporter
POLICE acting on intelligence that indecent images of child abuse were being downloaded at a Wrexham address, executed a search warrant at the property.
They found a number of images had been downloaded from the internet.
Former Royal Mail worker Michael Gallagher, 58, admitted three charges of possessing indecent images and three charges of making images by downloading.
But he was spared an immediate prison sentence at Mold Crown Court.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said it was a stark choice between a prison sentence, which would be relatively short, and a much longer community order, which was likely to provide better protection for the public at large by addressing Gallagher’s compulsion to access such images.
Gallagher, of Glan Gors, Wrexham, was handed a three-year community order, placed on rehabilitation and sent on an internet sex offender programme.
He was also placed on the sex offender register for five years and made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order. He must pay £340 costs.
Prosecuting barrister Ffion Tomos said Gallagher had pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court in Wrexham and had been committed to the crown court for sentence.
In March of last year police received intelligence that indecent images of children had been downloaded at the address and executed a search warrant at King’s Oak Court in March of last year.
He told officers: “I know what it is about. You will find things. I am sorry.”
A Dell Dimension tower computer was seized and when analysed, it was found to contain 20 category A images, the most serious category, together with 118 category B images and 480 category C images. There were 10 prohibited images too.
The prosecutor said 35 of the images could be easily accessed. The others had either been deleted or could only be accessed using specialised software. That software was present, she explained.
The ages of the children in the images were from 18 months upwards.
Miss Tomos said that when interviewed, the defendant made no comment.
Defending barrister John Hedgecoe said most of the images had been downloaded in 2008 and there had then been a gap in his offending until last year. Gallagher had no previous convictions whatsoever.
Mr Hedgecoe said the internet sex offender programme was entirely appropriate.
The judge said the general public were worried about such offences.
It was accepted that Gallagher had no previous convictions and it was therefore out of character.
He had worked for the same employer for 40 years before his retirement and his appearance in the dock of a crown court would have been punishment in itself for him, the judge added.
But that paled into insignificance compared with what was happening to the little children in the images and the judge said he hoped the defendant now had some insight into that.
see-http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/164128/former-royal-mail-worker-from-wrexham-spared-jail-over-child-abuse-images.aspx
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