October 2013

Business boss found with 2,000 child abuse images

ian

Almost 2,000 indecent images of children were found on the hard drives of a managing director, a court heard.

Ian Faulkner, aged 45, was caught with the pictures after a website within the UK was hacked in March 2010 and child porn was uploaded.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard the images had been there for 18 hours and a number of people had viewed the site.

One of those was Faulkner who police traced back to his home in Rough Hay Road, Darlaston two years later in August 2012.

The images ranged from level one to level five – from the least to the most serious.

Mr David Lees, prosecuting said: “Officers seized a computer and a laptop from the property. They found evidence of the images but they had been deleted and were in a location it would have to take an expert to access. They weren’t saved. The defendant was interviewed and made full admissions that he had viewed the images.”

Faulkner told police he had done it out of ‘morbid curiosity’.

Mr David Bratt, defending, said: “This defendant is appalled and generally ashamed at his actions. From the outset he has said there were two victims, the children who were in the images and his family. I don’t think he even knows why he viewed the pictures. He was fully co-operative with the police. He knew there would be publicity and he stepped down as managing director of his company to save them any embarrassment.”

Faulkner pleaded guilty to nine counts of possessing indecent images of children between 2008 and 2012. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of extreme and graphic pornography.

Judge Amjad Nawaz gave him a three-year community order and told him he must complete a community sex offenders’ work programme. Faulkner must also sign the sex offenders’ list for the next five years.