September 2023

Student, 26, claimed he turned to child sexual abuse images after becoming ‘isolated’ in Covid pandemic

Pervert Kieran Slater downloaded and distributed indecent images of children. The 26-year-old accessed the images at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard.

He claimed he had become isolated while at Brighton University in 2019 when covid struck. His mental health was affected and he left the course and returned to the Potteries to live with his mum.

His counsel, Paul Cliff, said: “He withdrew himself from the real world. He engaged with others online who plainly had an interest in children.”

Slater, of Hallfield Grove, Tunstall, pleaded guilty to distributing category A indecent images of children; distributing category B indecent images of children; making category A indecent images of children; possessing a prohibited image of a child; making category C indecent images of children; distributing category C indecent images of children; possessing extreme pornographic images; and making category B indecent images of children.

Judge Graeme Smith sentenced Slater to two years in prison, suspended for two years. As part of the order Slater must complete a rehabilitation activity requirement for 55 days; an iHorizon course and 200 hours unpaid work.

Judge Smith said: “There is an epidemic of child pornography in this nation at this time. You have become involved in that epidemic. You not only viewed some of the images but you forwarded them to other people, thus perpetuating the cycle.

Slater was made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the devices the images were found on.