Pervert had 1,200 images of children stored on computer
A pervert who became addicted to child pornography has been spared jail after paying for professional help to break the habit.
Robert Evans had 1,200 images of the worst kind – some featuring the sexual assault of babies as young as six months – stored on his computer, a judge heard.
The laptop was seized when police swooped on his home after a tip off on August 17 last year to discover that the 56-year-old defendant had already left for work.
His wife was alone at the address when the officers arrived and was ‘utterly shocked’ when told why they had come, disclosed Mr Glyn Samuel, prosecuting.
She contacted her husband who arranged a meeting with police two days later at which he made a full confession, continued the prosecutor.
Evans’ obsession with pornography started with visits to internet chat rooms and developed through the installation of computer systems that allowed him to share images with others.
He used search words like ‘young’ and ‘teen’ to find increasingly offensive material.
Mr Samuel continued: “The defendant himself described some of the stuff he had been looking at as ‘really bad’ and admitted he had become addicted.”
Evans, who had allegedly been abused when young, desperately wanted help, declared Miss Lynette McClement, defending.
He had already paid to attend courses aimed at assisting him to avoid the ‘trigger’ that drove him to view pornography, it was said.
The defendant from Stockwell Avenue, Brierley Hill admitted three counts of making indecent images and one of distributing.
Recorder Abigail Nixon told him: “Without men like you seeking sexual gratification children would not be abused in this way.
“You had a significant number of images of the highest level and behaved in a repulsive way viewing more extreme images.
"You gave no thought as to how this would effect your family and must live with that shame.”
The Recorder gave him a two year jail sentence but suspended it for two years because he had started to take steps to ‘address’ his addiction and there was hope that this would be successful.
He was also ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work, was made the subject of a Sexual harm Prevention Order and put on the Sex Offender Register.
