If you download child abuse images from the internet, expect to get a knock on your door from police. That is what a judge told a former coach driver who admitted sharing such material.
Jeremy Webb, 61, of Rosebay Mead in Stapleton, appeared before Bristol Crown Court today (February 22, 2022). He pleaded guilty to three charges of distributing child abuse images and three charges of possessing them.
Judge William Hart handed him a 20 months jail term suspended for two years. He told Webb: "The police are getting better and better at finding people who commit this kind of offence.
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"Those who feel they can do it secretly need to think again. All those who involve themselves in this offending can expect a knock on the door like you did, and that must have put the fear of God into you."
Webb was handed a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement for up to 40 days and was ordered to observe a six months tagged curfew in which he must stay at home from 9pm to 6am. He was handed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order designed to stop reoffending and was told to notify his whereabouts to police for 10 years.
Mandla Ndlovu, prosecuting, said intelligence gathered by the National Crime Agency prompted police to call on Webb in January last year. It transpired his computer IP address was identified when he posted a child abuse image via an internet messaging service.
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Forensic examination of his mobile phone established child abuse images. His two laptop computers were examined but no child abuse images were found.
Webb gave police a prepared statement in which he made full admissions. Police established he had shared child abuse images, and movies, with like-minded individuals.
Edward Hetherington, defending, said his client had informed family members of what he had done. The court heard that as well as a Net Nanny app on his phone - allowing others to monitor his internet activities - he had set up engagement with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity dedicated to the prevention of child sexual abuse.
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