Pensioner shared child images on social media chat site
A pensioner has been sent on a sex offenders’ course after he shared indecent images of young girls in an internet chat room.
Elwyn Harrison downloaded images of girls aged eight to 15 in sexual poses and exchanged some with other users of the Chatstep website.
Police also found extreme images of bestiality when they tracked him down to his home in Brixham through his IP address.
Harrison, aged 72, of Northfields Lane, Brixham, admitted downloading, possession and distributing indecent images of children and possession of extreme images.
He was ordered to complete a 30 day, one to one sex offenders’ treatment programme during a two year community order by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.
He was put on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which enables the police to monitor his internet activity.
The judge told him: ”The aggravating features are that there were four offences, there were some moving images, and those put onto the social media platform had the potential to be widely viewed.
Miss Holly Rust, prosecuting, said intelligence led to a search of Harrison’s home on June 28, 2018, where a computer and USB sticks were seized.
The extreme photographs showed adult women having sex with animals and the distribution was on an internet chat network.
