July 2016 Father given suspended sentence for child abuse images possession A father of three has been given a suspended sentence for possessing child sexual abuse images Bolton Crown Court heard how 54-year-old Andrew Matthews accessed indecent images of children via the internet in August 2014. Police raided his home in Beechcroft Avenue, Breightmet, on November 14 2014 and seized his laptop. Experts examining the machine found seven indecent images of boys and girls in category A, the most explicit type of images, and four indecent images of children rated at Category C. Matthews denied possession of the images when arrested but later pleaded guilty to making and possessing indecent images of children. Sentencing Matthews to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months, Recorder Abigail Hudson told Matthews: “You have been presented to me as a man of good character. “You deny any interest in children, but you clearly do have an interest because you downloaded and looked at these images. “You have a problem that you need to deal with”. Matthews was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and will be subject to supervision for 12 months. A sexual harm prevention order was made restricting his contact with children and computer use and he has been placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.