A NEWPORT man was jailed yesterday after indecent images of children were found on his computer.
Gerhard Jones, 60, of Court Crescent, Bassaleg, appeared in Newport Crown Court for sentencing having previously admitted 16 counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing indecent images of children.
Prosecutor David Webster told the court Jones came to the attention of police in November 2009, after a family member found a CD containing indecent images at Jones’ home and it was reported.
Jones’ home was searched and a total of 15,343 indecent images were found, of which 19 were level five, the worst level, 1,511 level four and the remaining images were between levels one and three. The court heard three videos containing level four images were also recovered.
Mr Webster said images were found on a variety of storage devices including hard drives and CDs, and around 7,000 images were duplicates. Jones was arrested and in interview said he obtained the images out of “morbid curiosity.”
The court heard Jones pleaded guilty on the basis that many of the images were duplicates, there was no direct contact with a young person via the internet and he did not distribute the images.
Representing Jones, Heath Edwards said Jones’s basis of plea echoed the prosecution case and he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
Mr Edwards said Jones was deeply regretful.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said the images were “truly worrying and truly disgusting.”
Jones was sentenced to 10 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. He was also banned from working with children.
