Perverted Eaglesfield piano tuner had picture of baby being abused
A perverted piano tuner was secretly viewing illegal and indecent images of children for 14 years – including ones of a baby being sexually abused.
Fifty-two-year-old west Cumbrian Scott Miller committed the offences despite having previously been given a three-year community order for almost identical offending in 2003, Carlisle Crown Court was told.
The defendant, of Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, admitted three new offences of downloading child abuse images.
His offences – spanning a period between April of 2006 and November of 2020 – related to 124 indecent images, covering all three categories which indicate the seriousness of such imagery.
Almost 100 of those still photos were classified as Category C, the least serious.
Four were Category A, the most serious.
Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting, said that police visited the defendant at his home at 6.55am on November 19, 2020, after receiving a tip-off.
The officers seized four of the defendant’s devices – a Samsung tablet, a mobile phone, a Dell laptop computer and another laptop.
The illegal images – some of which had been deleted – were found on those devices.
A forensic examination of the computer showed that Miller had been accessing those images over a 14-year period, said Mr Rogerson.
The prosecutor said: “The last image was downloaded on November 14 – four days before his arrest.”
Mr Rogerson pointed out that one of the images discovered on the defendant’s computer showed the sexual abuse of a baby just a few months old.
Recorder Tony Hawks said he was “just persuaded” to not impose immediate custody.
He told the defendant: “You have – have had – a perverted interest in viewing indecent images of children. And in 2003, at this court, you pleaded guilty to six offences of making indecent photographs of children.
“You were made the subject of a community order for three years and no doubt the purpose of that order was to try to stop you viewing this material.
“If that was the purpose, it was a total failure because the court now has to deal with three further offences of making indecent photographs.”
The judge repeated what he told another offender sentenced for similar offending earlier this week, saying that people who view such images are a key part of why the children involved are abused.
Recorder Hawks said: “It’s well known that if there was not a market for filth of this sort because people like you want to watch it, it would not be produced in the first place.”
The harm inflicted on the children who are abused was incalculable, he said.
Commenting on the image of a baby being abused, the judge added: “It’s difficult…to imagine anything more depraved or disgusting than that.”
Recorder Hawks gave Miler an 18-month prison term, suspended for two years.
He must complete an accredited sex offender behaviour programme and do 20 rehabilitation activity days.
He will be on the Sex Offender Register for a decade and over the same period he must abide by a sexual harm prevention order, which bars him from having unsupervised access to any child.
The judge accepted the defence submission that an adult was likely to be present in the home of any person hiring the defendant to tune a piano.
Recorder Hawks concluded by giving Miller this warning: “If you do this again you will get a sentence in the region of three to four years.”
