October 2009 Carer took refuge in child porn A 55-YEAR-OLD downloaded child porn and stories about incest on his computer after it became his “refuge and social life”. Brian Manchester, of Addison Villas, Eastwood, started accessing the offensive material when he was at home in the evenings looking after his elderly mother. His house was searched on November 13, 2007, after the Metropolitan Police passed information to Notts officers. They examined his computer and found he had used the search words “kiddie”, “baby”, “incest”, “rape” and “taboo”. He downloaded movies of children and pornographic stories about them from a free file-sharing site. Manchester pleaded guilty to 12 counts of making indecent photos of children and one of possessing them, between June 15, 2006, and October 29, 2007. There were 14 images on his computer, two of which were duplicates, and films that ran for seven minutes. Two pictures were at level two, the second lowest category of seriousness, 11 were at level four and one was at level five, the most serious. Nineteen images had been deleted – one at level one, six at level two, 11 at level four and one at level five, Nottingham Crown Court heard. Judge Michael Stokes QC gave Manchester a three-year community order. He must sign the sex offenders’ register for five years and is banned from working with or employing children under 16. The judge said all of Manchester’s family and most people where he lived were aware of his arrest. He said he had no doubt that Manchester was deeply ashamed that he had been caught. “You were not ashamed while you were viewing it. “The fact you were caught has made you consider what you were about, because what you were about is serious,” he said. “It’s because of people like you, who choose to download this material, that someone out there in cyberspace created this filth in the first place. “I’m prepared to accept in your case, given what I have read in the report and the period of time that has elapsed, that you are not likely to pose a particular danger to any child.” A prison sentence would be too short for Manchester to be able to take part in an intensive sex offender treatment programme, the court heard. Instead, he will complete the programme during the course of his community sentence. Adrian Reynolds, in mitigation, said: “The picture one gets here is of a man who is quite isolated, working, and looks after his mum. “He is in during the evening looking after her and the internet has become his refuge and social life.”