April 2009 Bretforton man had over 1,000 indecent images of children A FATHER from Bretforton who was caught with more than 1,000 indecent images of children said he had only meant to download adult pornography. When Anthony Clarke’s laptop was seized by police after a tip-off from Russia, officers discovered 1,212 indecent images of children saved in a document folder. The former children’s cricket coach told police he had looked at them ‘out of curiosity’. At Worcester Magistrates Court, Clarke of Ivy Lane, was convicted of 17 charges of possessing indecent photographs. Adrian Jones, prosecuting, said: “After the laptop was seized, Mr Clarke admitted there was child pornography on his computer and it belonged to him. He thought the children were between 10 and 15 years old. “He said he had done it out of curiosity and added ‘You do not know what is out there until you look at it’.” The photographs were all level one images of children, dressed and undressed, found on a laptop which Clarke had bought for his 17-year-old daughter. Magistrates were told 51-year-old Clarke, who also has a two-month-old granddaughter, has no perverted interest in children and has never been in trouble before. In mitigation Chris Hilton said Clarke, a self-employed painter and decorator, had not accessed all the images and had not intentionally downloaded photographs of children in his search for adult material. Clarke, was sentenced to a three-year community order with a 36-month supervision requirement. He was ordered to complete the community sex offending group work programme, pay £500 costs and sign the sex-offenders register for five years.