September 2016

Man found with naked pictures of children

A MAN found with naked pictures of children said he was originally looking for adult porn, a court heard.

Matthew Hodgson had 24 category C indecent images of children, which shows a child in an erotic pose, in his possession when police executed a warrant at his Kidderminster address on June 26 last year.

Adrian Jones, prosecuting, said police were acting on information when they discovered the child pornography stored on one of the 38-year-old’s devices.

He said: “A warrant was executed at the defendant’s address. Some items were seized on the information that they may contain indecent images of children.

Hodgson was arrested and when he was interviewed he said he had got the images from a particular website which allowed users to share images between one another.

“He said he went on the site to download adult porn and searched ‘nude’ but there was not a filter,” Mr Jones said. “He did, however, say there was a preview of the image before downloading them.”

Police said there was no evidence the defendant was distributing the images of the children, of which the age was unknown, he had produced by downloading and saving them.

Hodgson, of Bewdley Road, Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to making an indecent image of a child and to possessing 24 indecent images of a child when he appeared at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, September 10.

District Judge David Miller ordered pre-sentence reports be completed before the defendant was sentenced.

He said: “For the sentencing hearing, there should be a little bit more information about the age of the children and I shall keep all options open, including committal to crown court.”

Hodgson was granted unconditional bail and is due back before the court for sentence on October 1.