September 2003

Child porn pair to have sex-offender treatment

Two men caught in an international crackdown on internet child pornography have been ordered to undergo sex-offender treatment. 

Pensioner Edward Blake and chef Brian Ling Ho were along more than 60 people arrested in the North-East as part of FBI-led Operation Ore. Blake, 65, of Falmouth Road, North Shields, North Tyneside, admitted making and possessing indecent photographs of children, relating to 228 images found on his home computer. 

He was yesterday sentenced to three years’ community rehabilitation, ordered to register as a sex offender for five years and pay court costs of pounds 682. 

Ho, 36, of Bewick Park, Wallsend, North Tyneside, admitted one offence of possessing indecent photographs of children involving 1,641 images. He was given a two-year community rehabilitation order, placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years and told to pay pounds 648 court costs. 

Both men must attend the probation-run sex-offender treatment programme as a condition of the community rehabilitation.