April 2010

Jail for man found with 794 indecent images

A man found with indecent images of children, sado-masochism and bestiality has been sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

Martin Camps, 47, was caught downloading pictures and movies using a popular internet file-sharing programme and traced to his home in Hughenden Road, Worcester Park, which backs on to Motspur Park.

When officers from the abusive and extreme images unit searched the house on August 25 last year, he was asked if he had viewed any indecent photographs of children and replied “sometimes”, Kingston Crown Court heard on Monday, April 26.

Officers found 794 images on his computer, 32 pornographic movies and four DVDs of an extreme pornographic nature.

The children in the images ranged from a baby to a nine-year-old.

Nine of the images were graded level five – which is the most extreme and include bestiality or sadomasochism – and another 228 of level four.

Camps had a previous conviction in July 2004, for flashing at bus stops in the Kingston area, which landed him on an unsuccessful sex offenders prevention programme, the court was told.

In mitigation, the court heard Camps had admitted his guilt straight away and said he had an addiction.

His defence counsel said he would likely lose his job and had already run up council tax debts.

He said: “He knows he will have a difficult time in custody bearing in mind the charges for which he has been sentenced.”

He was banned from working or staying in a house with children without permission from his probation officer and told to sign on to the sex offenders register.

Judge Martin Binning relaxed the conditions to allow him to visit his nephews with their parents’ permission.

He said: “It seems to me custody is inevitable as downloading of images such as these encourages the exploitation of the young.”

Camps, who showed little signs of emotion during the case, except to hang his head as details of his crimes were read out, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for the images of children and a 12-month concurrent sentence for the images of bestiality.

The judge reduced his sentence from the potential maximum of 24 months for his early guilty plea.

Detective Inspector Andy Shortland said: “It goes some way to acting as a deterrent to people who think they are anonymous sitting behind the computer.

“We can trace people and find people.”

But police still do not know who the children are, or where and when the pictures were taken.

If you have concerns about indecent images, visit the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre website at ceop.gov.uk or call Stop It Now at 0808 1000900.