ALLAN NORTH AVOIDS JAIL SENTENCE OVER CHILD SEX IMAGE OFFENSE NEAR TAMWORTH

In September 2012, Allan North, a 51-year-old man from Fitzroy Road, Northfield, was spared jail after admitting to possessing indecent images of children. The images were discovered when North’s stolen computer was recovered from a hedge in Kingsbury, near Tamworth, and handed over to police. North faced 12 charges related to the creation of such images during his appearance at Warwick Crown Court.

Judge Richard Griffith-Jones expressed his extreme displeasure with North’s actions, describing the images as “disgusting” and “as bad as any I’ve seen,” and referred to North as a “disgusting creep.” He revealed that he was so angered by the case that had he sentenced North before lunch, he would have imposed a custodial sentence immediately. However, the judge explained, “Sentence must not take place when the judge is angry; but it is anger I am happy to confess to, because any right-minded person would be angry at what those pictures showed.”

While condemning North’s conduct, the judge emphasized the importance of psychological intervention to prevent future offending. He stated, “I want to stop you ever supplying this disgusting market by looking at such pictures. The best way of doing that is to ensure you are subject to a programme in which, psychologically, you will have no hiding place.”

As part of his sentence, North was subject to a three-year supervision order and mandated to participate in a three-year sex offender treatment programme. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for five years and received a sexual offences prevention order, allowing police to monitor his internet activity for the next eight years.

Defending him, Tarlowchan Dubb acknowledged, “There is a sexual problem, and it’s a perverse one. Punishment of course is necessary. But in the long term it is perhaps assistance which is needed to prevent further offending and to prevent the very young victims suffering the ordeal which, if it was not for people like Mr North, they would not have to undergo.”