August 2008 PERVERT OFFERED BOY, 11, £10 FOR A NAKED PICTURE A WALNEY man who took an indecent photo of a child on a fishing trip has been jailed for nine months. Anthony Batty, of West Shore Park, also offered money to the boy, who was 11 at the time, to pose naked for him. The defendant was sent to jail on his 57th birthday as he was dealt with on Monday at Preston Crown Court for a number of offences. Batty had pleaded guilty to one charge of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, one of taking an indecent photograph of a child, one of possessing an indecent image and another nine of making indecent images of children. He had previous convictions for sex and child porn offences. Mr Nigel Booth, prosecuting, said Batty had offered the boy £10 if he would pose naked for a photograph. The boy refused. On a subsequent occasion, the boy had gone on a fishing trip when the defendant managed to take a sneak indecent photograph of him. The boy called out when he realised what Batty was doing. The boy went on to make a statement to police in which he said: “Anthony Batty has ruined part of my childhood and this makes me angry.” Police arrested the defendant at his Barrow home last November. His home was searched and equipment including a laptop and two memory sticks were seized. A total of 292 indecent photographs were found. Two-hundred-and-twenty-nine of those were in the Level One category, the lowest level of seriousness. Of the other material, 27 images were at Level Four, which is very serious. The images included photo-graphs of boys under 10 engaged in sexual activity. The image of the boy who had gone fishing was found in a folder on one of the computer memory sticks. In November 2000 Batty was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years, for one offence of showing an indecent photograph to a boy and 24 others of making indecent photographs. Mr Frank Nance, defending, said all the images were for Batty’s own personal gratification and there had been only one request for the boy to pose naked. “Since his plea, the defendant has kept a diary of his day-to-day movements, to show what he has been doing and where he has been going.” In addition to the jail term, Batty was banned from working with children and made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order, for an indefinite period. This includes a ban on him having any unsupervised contact with children. Sentencing Batty, Judge Bryn Holloway said: “Without people of means who are prepared to pay to access this material, that market and those victims would not exist”. Referring to Batty’s previous convictions, the judge added: “Obviously, your appetite for this material has continued on exactly the same basis as it was before. People like you must appreciate that if they possess levels of material going up to Level Four, that custody is an inevitable consequence.”