Former Lynn man had 1,000 indecent images of children
A FORMER Lynn man contracted to the Ministry of Defence has insisted he is not a paedophile despite being caught with more than 1,000 indecent images of children on his computer.
Police found 1,168 images on a computer belonging to Tony Coe (44) after website subscriptions and credit card information led officers to his former address in Lynn.
Last Tuesday Coe was told by Swaffham magistrates he faces a potential jail sentence for what they described as "serious offences that need to be dealt with robustly."
Coe, who now lives at 7 Somerset Close, Cambridge, admitted possessing indecent photographs of a child between 2003 and 2007, and 11 charges of making indecent images of children.
He was placed on the sex offenders' register and will return to court for sentencing on Tuesday, September 18.
Mr Ben Brighouse, prosecuting, said the images recovered were all at level one, the least serious rating in a measure used by police to assess such pictures.
He said credit card transactions provided a link to Coe, who fully admitted downloading and saving the images on his computer when interviewed.
Mr Andrew Spence, mitigating, said Coe found the websites by chance while legitimately searching the Internet.
He said: "He was not purposely looking for it at the time, but some time later he did return to the particular site in question.
"He did subscribe to sites in the US, which he paid for on six occasions.
"The sites he subscribed to were those showing children posing erotically and were not engaged in sexual activity.
"The sites stated they complied with US law and legislation.
"He took that on face value but was naive to believe that claim.
'CAUGHT UP'
"He accepts, and knew at the time, that what he was doing was wrong, he cannot explain why he looked at them or stored them.
"He got caught up.
"Mr Coe's definition of a paedophile is someone who wants sexual activity with children, he has no such desires."
The court was told Coe works for a private company which is under contract to the Ministry of Defence.
He has been married since 1998 and his wife is currently expecting her first child.
Mr Spence told the court: "He has displayed significant remorse for his conduct and is deeply ashamed of what he has done."
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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