October 2021 Pervert blamed road smash for his depraved behaviour A civil service pervert has claimed a near-fatal road accident on sending him into a downward spiral of depression which led to him looking at and sharing sickening child sexual abuse and rape images. Andrew ‘Drew’ Wylie quit riding motorcycles after the smash which led to him requiring life-saving surgery and learning to walk again. But former friends who knew him through the biker scene said that in no way excuses his appalling behaviour which led to him being placed on probation for two years at Belfast Crown Court. Wylie was also hit with a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) and put on the sex offenders’ register for five years. Judge Neil Rafferty said he was not sending the paedophile to jail despite “every sinew in my body wishing a custodial sentence to follow”. Belfast Crown Court heard last Thursday how Wylie not only viewed the sickening images he also shared them with other online predators. His offending emerged when police raided his home in August 2018. When an officer explained the reason for the search, Wylie made admissions that he had been looking at indecent images of children. Two laptops were seized on which over 2,000 extreme pornographic images involving bestiality were discovered, along with pictures of kids being abused. Wylie, who worked for years in the Snugville Street social security office opposite his house, confessed that he initially viewed the images “out of curiosity” and that “one thing led to another”. The ex-civil servant subsequently pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including both possessing and sharing indecent images of children, and possessing extreme pornographic images. The court heard that following his arrest, Wylie was forced to leave his home in the Shankill Road area and is now living in “temporary stable accommodation”. He told locals that the police were at his door seeking help in a fraud investigation. However, when the truth became known the back windows of his property were broken forcing him to flee. Sentencing Wylie, Judge Rafferty added: “Every image you saw was a real-life child being abused sexually so that image could be created for people like you to watch. This is not child pornography. This is child abuse. “Every child you saw was a real-life child, it was a warm, flesh-and-blood human being who suffered. Bear that in mind if you are ever tempted to access such disgusting and depraved images again.”