May 2023

Paedophile dad who had “obsession with physical abuse of children by spanking” receives suspended sentence

A paedophile dad from Warrington, who was caught with a disgusting haul of child sexual abuse images and sexualised chat log messages, was described by a Crown Court Judge as having “an obsession with the physical abuse of children by spanking.”

Police interviewed 56-year-old Terry Jones from Winwick, Warrington after finding the incriminating material on his laptop and mobile phone and he admitted “he was interested in the spanking of children”

As well as photographs and cartoon images of child abuse he was also found to have two images of extreme porn on his laptop involving women having sex with a horse and a dog.

Jones, of Waterworks Lane pleaded guilty to six offences involving making indecent images, possessing pseudo images of children and two of possessing extreme porn.

Stuart Mills, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that police raided Jones’ home on April 4 last year after receiving information about the use of his electronic devices.

He said, “It’s me, I was looking at cartoons”. He was arrested and his home was searched. His Dell laptop and Samsung phone, both found in his bedroom, and an external hard drive, located in a downstairs cupboard, were seized and sent off for forensic analysis.

When interviewed “he largely answered no comment other than to say the chat was fantasy,” said Mr Mills.

The forensic analysis revealed 119 indecent photographs of children on his laptop, 111 in the lowest category; two of extreme porn and 329 prohibited images. His phone contained two indecent images and there were two prohibited images on the hard drive.

A series of chat logs was found on his mobile phone using the Trillian app involving 11,000 images.

“A search revealed sexualised conversations relating to the spanking of children but there are no suggestions of any meetings,” said Mr Mills.

Judge David Potter said that the chat logs reveal Jones has “an obsession with the physical abuse of children by spanking.”

He said that he accepted that the defendant has expressed genuine remorse and has begun rehabilitation work to ensure he does not repeat his behaviour.

The judge pointed out that some of the children shown in the images were very young and such abuse has a profound impact, possibly for life, on the victims and people downloading the images fuels the abuse.

He sentenced Jones to eight months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered him to carry out 35 days rehabilitation activities. He also ordered him to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and pay £425 prosecution costs.

Jones has to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed for the same length of time.