August 2011 Kendal father who download child pornography given suspended sentence A KENDAL father wept in court as a judge condemned him for downloading child pornography that showed children being ‘horribly abused’. Aldwin Schmid, 62, of Sandes Avenue, admitted 18 counts of processing and downloading indecent images of children and two counts of possessing extreme pornography between May 2009 and February 2010. Carlisle Crown Court heard Schmid would download the images, which varied in levels of seriousness, after drinking alcohol. He then deleted them when he sobered up the next day. Judge Peter Hughes QC ordered Schmid to be put on the sex offenders’ register for ten years. He was also given an eight-month prison term, suspended for two years, and also ordered to complete a two-year supervision community order which includes a sexual offences prevention course. Linda Vance, prosecuting, told the hearing that Cumbria Police had received information from another force that Schmid could have been accessing illegal images. Officers then seized his computer from his Kendal address. The court heard that Schmid confessed to downloading the indecent images of children and two films that showed an adult woman engaged in sexual activity with a horse, when interviewed by officers. Mrs Vance said: “When they did forensic studies they found still and moving images of children. “He told officers he was ashamed and sorry for what he had done and took responsibility for them being on his computer.” In mitigation William Mark-Bell told the court Schmid had removed all forms of accessing the internet from his home, including his computer, and had stopped drinking almost entirely. “He accepts he needs help,” said Mr Mark-Bell. “He is no longer on speaking terms with his son.” Judge Peter Hughes said he had had the unpleasant task of having to look at some of the images. “They were all still children, some of them were subject to horrible abuse for the purpose of producing these images,” he said. “One only needs to think, just for a moment, of what it must have meant to be subject to such abuse just so other people can obtain sexual enjoyment from it. “They have lost their innocence and are probably scarred for life.”