October 2013 Former Chippenham minister jailed for child abuse images offences A former Chippenham minister has been jailed after police found more than 600 child abuse pictures on his laptops. The Rev Dale Anthony Cotton was sent to prison for 18 weeks and put on the sex offenders’ register for seven years, when he appeared at North West Wiltshire Magistrates Court today. At his first hearing on September 26, the 51-year-old admitted an addiction to porn and pleaded guilty to five charges of making and one of possessing indecent images of children. Presiding magistrate Ninna Gibson said when passing sentence: “We are mindful of the position of trust that you had in the community.” Cotton went to live with his parents in Crymych, Pembrokeshire in Wales after being suspended from his position of reverend with Chippenham Methodist Circuit. The Rev David Alderman, superintendent minister of the circuit, watched from the back of the court as prosecutor Kate Prince told how Cotton used his two laptops to look at websites associated with child abuse. Site addresses referenced jailbait galleries, young paradise and nude virgins. Police found a total of 614 child abuse images, 90 of which could be located by any computer user with a minimum of effort. The majority of these – 522 – were the lowest level of explicitness, level one. Cotton possessed the pictures between November 2011 and October 2012. The two laptops will now be destroyed by police. Defence solicitor Andrew Eddy said Cotton, who until his admission had an unblemished record, had voluntarily sought help for his problem. He said: “When someone goes to the police station and admits their involvement and provides really frank information as to the degree of their offending behaviour, that sets him out as someone who agrees completely that what they’ve done isn’t right and someone who wants to change.” A pre-sentence report had recommended a community order, and Mr Eddy tried to convince magistrates that this would do more to help both Mr Cotton and society than a custodial sentence. He said: “He is genuinely sorry for what he’s done and realises the impact this type of behaviour has on society generally.” But Mrs Gibson ruled: “We believe that these offences are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.” One parishioner, at court to discover the verdict, said: “They told us he’d been suspended but I didn’t know anything about this until I read the paper.” September 2013 Ex-Chippenham Methodist minister admits child abuse images offences Former Chippenham Methodist minister, the Rev Dale Anthony Cotton, has admitted looking at child abuse images on the internet and confessed it was the result of a pornography addiction spanning back 10 years. Cotton, who was employed by Chippenham Methodist Circuit but has since moved to Wales, is to be put on the sex offenders’ register after being turned into police by a fellow minister at the church. Police found more than 600 child abuse images on computers at the clergyman’s home in Chippenham at the end of October 2012. The 51-year-old, who now lives in Crymych, Pembrokeshire, appeared at North West Wiltshire Magistrates Court today, where he pleaded guilty to five charges of making indecent images of children on November 28, 2011, and one charge of possessing them between November 2011 and October 2012. Pauline Lambert, prosecuting, said: “In October 2012 Reverend Jones contacted Wiltshire Police and said one of his ministers at the Methodist Church, that is Reverend Dale Cotton, had informed him he had been accessing child pornography. Police officers seized two computers from Cotton’s home address. “He said he had been addicted for the last ten years and had been involved in internet chat rooms.” She said the two laptops contained a total of 611 child abuse images, of which 90 were able to be readily viewed again. The vast majority of these were level one, the lowest level of explicitness. The court heard Cotton had visited websites synonymous with child abuse, including site addresses referencing school angels, nude virgins and teeny lovers. Mark Glendenning, defending, said: “He has an addiction, and that has spilt out of curiosity over onto chat rooms. He accepts he has a problem.” He told magistrates most of the images were inaccessible, and there was no suggestion of any having been distributed anywhere else. Chair of the bench, Lady Maria Pitt, said a pre-sentence report should include all options, including custody. Cotton will be sentenced by magistrates in Chippenham on October 31 after pre-sentence reports have been prepared. Bail conditions forbid him from having contact with children under 16 without supervision, using a computer or other device to access the internet, and entering a property in Monkton Hill, Chippenham.