July 2023

Man jailed for secret collection of child abuse images

A 29-year-old man is starting his third prison sentence after he was caught again with a secret collection of distressing child abuse images and videos.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Jamie Wardle’s latest offending was the third time he had been convicted of offences relating to his possession of indecent images of children and he had also breached the terms of his existing sexual harm prevention order.

Wardle, of Sycamore Drive, Brighouse, had previously been jailed for 16 months at Leeds Crown Court in 2016 and in 2021 he had been given a 14-month prison term at Bradford Crown Court.

Wardle was subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order which restricted his use of internet-enabled devices, but when police officers carried out a routine monitoring visit in December last year they discovered he had been using a mobile phone which he hadn’t disclosed.

During a search of his home, the officers found a USB memory stick hidden in a pillowcase and the device was later found to contain more than 200 still and moving images of child abuse.

Prosecutor Bashir Ahmed said the material had been sorted into named folders and the images had been obtained over an 18-month period between May 2021 and November last year.

He said the children involved were aged between two and 16 and many of the images showed children crying and visibly distressed.

Wardle pleaded guilty to three charges relating to his possession of the indecent images and also admitted breaching his sexual harm prevention order.

The court heard that Wardle had already been remanded in custody for about eight months and Judge Colin Burn was urged to consider a sentence which would involve more focused work with the defendant by the probation service.

The judge concluded that Wardle posed a significant risk of serious harm in the future and imposed an extended licence period of two years on top of his three-year jail sentence.

Wardle will still be subject to the indefinite sexual harm prevention order and he will have to register as a sex offender for life with the police.

Judge Burn said the offences were not “victimless crimes” adding: ”These crimes very much have real victims.

“It’s a case where the primary consideration of the court for the purposes of sentence has to be to reflect the need to try to prevent young victims being abused in that way.”

He said Wardle had gone to some lengths to obtain the images and hide them from the police and he had been providing a market, as he had in the past, for those people who caused so much misery to real children.