March 2016 Rugby ‘deviant’ who downloaded child abuse pictures avoids jail A ‘DEVIANT’ Rugby man who downloaded ‘utterly repellent’ images of children being sexually abused – some of them of pre-school age – has escaped being jailed. Instead Christopher Kowal was given a 16-month prison sentence suspended for two years by a judge at Warwick Crown Court. He was also ordered to take part in an Internet Sexual Offender Treatment Programme, to do 150 hours of unpaid work, to register as a sex offender for ten years and to pay £340 costs. Kowal, 36, of Chamberlain Road, Rugby, had pleaded guilty to eight charges of possessing indecent images of children, one of possessing a prohibited image of a child and one of possessing extreme pornography. Prosecutor Amy Jackson said that after receiving intelligence about his internet use, the police executed a warrant at Kowal’s home in December 2014 and seized his computer. On it, officers found 403 still and moving indecent images of both boys and girls as young as one being made to perform sex acts. In addition they found a prohibited computer-generated movie depicting boys aged about six, and three extreme movies showing women engaging in sex acts with animals. When Kowal, who had no previous convictions, was interviewed he denied having any sexual interest in children or actively seeking out images of young children. He said he would search for things like ‘teen sex,’ and would download images en-masse, resulting in the images of young children arriving as well. Ben Williams, defending, said that at a time of personal difficulties Kowal, who works as an engineer, ‘began to use pornography as a way of taking his mind off them’. He did so using file-sharing software, and then began to view material which ‘crossed the boundary of legality’. “The interest he developed which did cross the line was in girls a little under 16 – but teenage girls and not pre-pubescent or even younger, although such images were among those he had downloaded. “This was purely a fantasy interest, and nothing he would have ever contemplated embarking on in the real world. “He has begun to get help with his attitudes towards sex and, with probation’s help, hopefully he can put this type of behaviour behind him,” added Mr Williams. Sentencing Kowal, Judge Alan Parker told him: “You have pleaded guilty at an early stage to utterly repellent offences which disclose an interest in deviancy. “Like many people in your position you denied in interview a sexual interest in children. It is axiomatic that people like you fail to acknowledge the deviant thought processes which lead you to obtain images of this kind. “If I were to send you to prison forthwith, you would only serve half of that sentence, and when you are released there is little I can do to protect the public. “Although I am utterly repelled by the description of the images you found attractive, my purpose must be to protect the public. I have come to the conclusion that the recommendation in the report is probably about right.”