May 2014

Ex-company director had ‘voracious appetite’ for indecent pictures of children – Walks free

A DISGRACED former company director with a “voracious appetite” for indecent images of children had more than 300,000 of the sick pictures and videos on his computer, Hull Crown Court heard.

Stephen Kay, 57, a former director and shareholder of IPS Group, built up a stash of still and moving images of child abuse, and even created his own network of paedophiles to share them with.

Some of the images and movies were described as “extreme”.

But Kay, of Snaith Road, Rawcliffe, walked free from court with a suspended sentence because he was deemed to have a very low risk of reoffending.

Kay’s barrister, Antony Farrell, said that when police returned two of his computer hard drives, one of them still had indecent images on it.

Mr Farrell said: “He was absolutely horrified by this so he contacted his solicitor in order to return them. He was rather surprised that they had been sent back to him.”

Kay admitted six counts of possessing indecent images and one of distributing them.

Mr Farrell said Kay was “disgusted” by what he had done and that he may have put his wife’s job as a social worker in jeopardy.

Recorder Tim Roberts sentenced Kay to two years in prison, suspended for two years.

The judge said: “You have pleaded guilty to extremely serious offences involving the distribution, among other things, of child pornography.

“A large number of images were found in your possession, many of them extremely disturbing images of children. You had accumulated these over a period of time. This wasn’t just a passing acquaintance with this sort of material – you had established a network of like-minded people with whom you were willing to share these images.

“And the distribution of these images is a particularly alarming features of this type of behaviour.”

The judge said a probation service report, describing Kay as a being at low risk of reoffending, had been augmented by correspondence from his wife and daughter.

The judge said: “A number of observations have been made that this behaviour is completely out of character for you.

“It is not. It is very much within your character.

“The frequency with which you returned to these sites and gratified yourself with this material indicates that this is part of your character – a deeply entrenched part of your character – and that’s something that you must face and deal with.

“It’s something, too, which your family have to acknowledge.”

Kay must comply with a sex offenders’ treatment programme, must notify police of his address for ten years, have restricted use of the internet for ten years, and was barred from working with children for the same period.

A spokeswoman for Humberside Police said after the hearing: “We are aware of the claims that were raised in court in relation to a returned computer and we are now looking into the matter.”