Steven Anthony Jones claimed he had accidentally downloaded the pictures and videos, then said he'd done it because he was hunting for claimed had abused him
A man who claimed he had accidentally downloaded child pornography while looking for images of people he said had abused him then went on to suggest he’d done it as part of a criminal investigation.
Steven Anthony Jones said he was searching for information about a teacher, priest and landlord when he downloaded some of the worst indecent images of children.
He then went on to claim he did what he did as part of a “criminal investigation”. He made a complaint to police about his alleged abuse after his arrest, and those allegations are now being probed by police.
At Mold crown court today, he was told that the “investigation” defence could not work for him, only police officers.
Prosecutor Simon Mintz said Jones’ version of events was a “smokescreen” to avoid responsibility for what he’d done.
The court heard that the search terms he’d used indicated he was looking for images of children, not adults.
Jones, who had previously been of good character, had downloaded five category A videos - the worst kind - two category B images and one category B video between May and July last year.
There were several other downloads that fell into category C.
The children in the images were aged between five and 15, some girls and some boys.
They had already been deleted from his computer but were found by the police’s dedicated cyber crime unit.
Interviewed by investigating officers, Jones, of Celyn Park, Carmel, near Holywell , said he had accidentally downloaded them while looking for adult porn. He said that he was interested in older men, not children.
But in his later defence statement he said he had downloaded the material as part of his investigations into people he believed had committed historical sex offences.
After the unanimous convictions by the jury, Judge Rhys Rowlands bailed him pending sentence.
He ordered him to register with the police as a sex offender and said that the defendant should be open and frank with the probation service so that the court could consider an alternative to custody.
But the judge said if the report said that he was still in denial and that he “maintained all sorts of nonsense”, then that would be more difficult for him to avoid jail.
Speaking after Jones was convicted, an NSPCC Cymru spokesman said: “Every indecent image viewed by Jones was a crime scene and visual record of a serious sexual assault.
“Searching for this type of material only leads to its proliferation on the internet and more victims who will need support to overcome what has happened to them.
“Jones’ actions are inexcusable and his guilty verdict should send out a message that those caught viewing indecent images of children will face justice.”
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/child-porn-investigator-facing-jail-12587512
No comments:
Post a Comment