A 33-YEAR-OLD man with mental health problems was convicted of downloading indecent images of children after he called police with “delusionary beliefs”.
A total of 2,070 photographs were found on computers at James Stanier’s Derby home after he told police he believed work colleagues had been gang-raped and members of his family were victims of a paedophile ring.
Derby Crown Court heard that Stanier, of The Paddock, Boulton Moor, had been receiving help from the mental health service since 2003.
Mark Achurch, for the prosecution, said that after Stanier made the phone call to police, his brother contacted mental health workers saying he was concerned for his welfare.
Mr Achurch said Stanier then admitted to a psychiatric nurse that he had pictures of children, as young as six, on his computer.
“He said he had been looking at images from about 2001 and had about 200 images of an indecent type,” said Mr Achurch.
The photographs were found on two laptops and three hard drives. The court heard that 657 images had been deleted but were traceable by police.
Mr Achurch said that 1,834 images were of the lowest indecency level, category one, 122 of category two, 56 of category three, 58 of category four and one movie image in category five, the worst level.
He said: “There was a significant amount of duplication.”
Stuart Newsam, in mitigation, said Stanier told him he had transferred the images between the computers. And he said that it was Stanier himself who, one-and-a-half years ago, drew the situation to the attention of the authorities.
He said that since then, Stanier had been “able to demonstrate a number of improvements in life in general and in social skills”.
Giving Stanier a three-year community order, Judge John Wait said: “Anybody who is accessing indecent images of children on the internet is positively promoting and encouraging the exploitation and even torture of children.”
Stanier will be supervised by the probation service throughout the order and must attend a sex offenders’ treatment programme.
He will have to abide by a sexual offenders’ prevention order and sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
Stanier admitted 16 charges of making indecent images of children and four of possessing them, between January 2001 and December 2008.
