HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING TRADESMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD ABUSE IMAGES
A paedophile tradesman sought out horrific child abuse images after becoming "desensitised" to adult pornography.Callum Robins was found with indecent images of children aged four to ten who were depicted in states of distress.
Robins, aged 34 and a father of three, was caught in possession of five category A images, seven category B, and four category C images.
He was using Telegram and WhatsApp to access this material.
On Monday, Robins appeared at Durham Crown Court to be sentenced for three counts of making indecent images after pleading guilty.
The police had arrested him at his home in Percy Terrace after seizing his Huawei phone, which contained images deposited via Telegram, WhatsApp, and thumbnails.
During police interviews, Robins claimed he was in an adult porno group chat involving 150 members worldwide and claimed to have seen indecent images, but insisted he could not account for the images on his device.
He also stated he was out of the area when the images were downloaded, which was proven incorrect.
Robins admitted to installing Telegram, searching for specific terms, and deleting some images.
His defence argued that he was of previous good character, owned a roofing business, and was suffering from alcohol and cocaine addiction which led to his desensitisation and craving for more extreme material.
The judge handed down a sentence of 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered him to complete 80 hours of unpaid work and 30 days of rehabilitation.
A five-year sexual harm prevention order was also issued, and he will be on the sex offenders' register for ten years.
