A former Royal Air Force technician from Brampton who searched the internet for child abuse images blamed his offending on grief.
Bruce Beveridge, 64, was arrested after Cumbria Police were tipped off by an external law enforcement agency, Carlisle Crown Court heard.
He was charged after police raided his Dacre Road home in Brampton on July 9, 2020, seizing ten electronic devices.
Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson described how the police officers who examined those devices found illegal material on two of them, including a Toshiba laptop on which there as evidence that it was used to access illegal images of children
These included a seven-minute video depicting a 14-year-old girl being sexually abused. The images were classified as category A – the most serious in law.
Also found on the computer was material ‘indicative’ of Beveridge’s interest in illegal child abuse images, including search terms which he had used as he trawled thd internet for images involving children and sex, said Mr Rogerson.
Beveridge had used deletion software to scrub data permanently from the devices he was using, the court heard.
When he was interviewed by the police, Beveridge claimed he had no idea how the abuse video found its way into his downloads folder.
“The search terms [he had used] were put to him and he was unable to explain why those search terms were on his computer.”
The judge highlighted the link between the demand for such sickening images from people such as Beveridge and continuing sexual abuse of children such as the 14-year-old featured in the video found on his computer.
“You are part of that offending,” said the judge
Beveridge will be on the Sex Offender Register for five years and must complete 50 rehabilitation activity days with the Probation Service. This will include completing an accredited sex offender treatment programme.
Beveridge will be the subject of a sexual harm prevention order which will also last for five years.
A sixty-four-year-old Brampton man has been put on the Sex Offender Register after he admitted downloading child abuse images.
Police who seized devices owned by Bruce Beveridge discovered that they contained five indecent child images which were classed as Category A, the most serious kind, Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard.
The charge relates to images that included a video which lasted for seven minutes and 31 seconds, the contents of which prosecutor Peter Kelly said should not be aired in court.
Beveridge committed the offence over a period of almost six years, the court heard.
The charge states that between December 6 of 2014 and March 25 of 2020, the defendant made or downloaded five indecent Category A images of children.
Mr Kelly said that the offences came to light after the police visited the defendant at his home on July 9, 2020.
Given the nature of the images found on the devices, said Mr Kelly, the defendant should be sentenced by a judge at the crown court.
They told the defendant that he must report to Carlisle’s Police HQ at Durranhill within three days and provide his personal details, as is required for those people who are on the Sex Offender Register.
The defendant will be sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court on July 11.
In the meantime, he was granted bail.
The length of time his name will be on the Sex Offender Register will be determined by the ultimate length and nature of the sentence he is given.
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