Former West Lynn's man's images shame
A FORMER West Lynn man contracted to the Ministry of Defence narrowly escaped going to prison after being caught with 1,000-plus indecent images of children on his computer.
Swaffham magistrates were told that 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 home.
Coe, formerly of St Peters Road, West Lynn, but now living at 7 Somerset Close, Cambridge, was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he admitted possessing indecent photographs of a child between 2003 and 2007, and 11 charges of making indecent images of children.
He was also put on a two-year supervision order during which he must attend an Internet sex offenders' programme, placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years and ordered to pay 60 costs.
The court ordered that the computer equipment containing the illegal pictures should be confiscated and destroyed.
Sentencing Coe, presiding magistrate Gerry Burns said: "There are children out there being exploited for the gratification of people like yourself and it is quite clear that your family is also suffering quite considerably because of your actions.
"That you are not going into custody today doesn't mean that you are getting away – any other criminal offence within the two-year period and you will be going to prison."
Prosecutor Dorothy Pulsford-Harris said police searched Coe'sformer home on March 6 and seized two computer towers.
The indecent images recovered were all at level one, the least serious rating in a scale used by police to assess such pictures, although there were some deleted images at higher levels.
The defendant admitted subscribing to child porn sites for many years and downloading images, and then hiding them elaborately so a third party could not find them.
"He said he did not know why he had done it and did not consider himself a paedophile," she said.
In mitigation for Coe, solicitor Charlotte Winchester said: "There is no evidence of distribution or personal gain – they were simply for personal viewing."
Her client had thought through the consequences of his actions and now realised that it involved exploitation of vulnerable children. He was "extremely ashamed" of his behaviour and realised that he had let himself and his family down.
He had no previous convictions, his pregnant wife and family were standing by him and he had begun seeing a counsellor for help.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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