Among those freed in the last two weeks were Tony Swale, 67, who stockpiled pictures and videos of kids as young as four.
He grinned as he left
court after telling cops: “I’m the victim.” District Judge Adrian Lower gave him an 18-month community order and a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Only moments earlier on October 2, he had jailed a shoplifter for 22 weeks at York magistrates’ court.
Timothy Johnson, 45, who left court hiding his face, had more than 3,500 images of children as young as two. Of those, 565 were Category A and 401 Category B.
Sentencing him at Bournemouth crown court, Judge Robert Pawson said some were of “the most foul sexual abuse”. Jailing him for 12 months, suspended for two years, he said: “You are directly contributing to the rape of children by downloading those images because if people like you didn’t download them then other people wouldn’t take them and put them on the internet.”
'The lowest of the low'
Philip Nwaobasi, 53, from Romford, East
London, who was found with 2,118 Category A images, the most in our probe, got ten months, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work. He was spared prison after Snaresbrook crown court was told on October 8 that he had come to the “realisation that these are real children”.
Meanwhile, bus driver Charlie Young, 21, from Didcot, Oxfordshire, was allowed to go free after being found with 48 Category A images, one showing the rape of a girl aged between five and seven.
Sentencing him at Oxford crown court on October 4, Recorder Jaron Crooknorth told him: “Your offending fuels offending that causes misery to children.”
David Carpenter, 65, got 16 months’ jail, suspended for 18 months, for possessing 277 Category A images, 204 Category B and 257 Category C.
Sentencing him at Luton crown court on October 9, Judge Allison Hunter KC said: “These are extremely serious and disgusting offences to find a man of your advanced age to plead guilty to.”
During our probe, we saw some offenders jailed for accessing indecent images — but only if they faced other charges, such as breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order or making contact with children online.
