May 2018 Smirking paedophile walks free from court A smirking paedophile walked free from court today despite downloading sick videos of children and babies being sexually abused. Dad-of-one Damien Renshaw, of Yew Tree Court, Heswall, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court supported by his parents and sister to be sentenced for three counts of creating  hundreds of child sexual abuse images – some of which were of children as young as three months old – after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing. When approached, and surrounded by his family, Renshaw, 34, smirked as he responded with ‘no’ answers to our questions. His mother declined to read her character reference but simply said “He won’t be the first and he won’t be the last.” The court heard how the NHS IT worker, who worked at hospitals across Wirral, had downloaded a total of 235 child sex abuse images, including 12 videos and stored them on his tablet and USB drive. 62 of the images – including eight videos – were the most serious category A images and featured toddlers between six and 12 months old. 97 of the images – including six videos – were category B and featured children as young as three and six months old. 76 of the images were category C, some of which featured a young girl between the ages of two and three. When initially interviewed by police on October 4, 2017 Renshaw gave a ‘no comment’ interview to police, however when he was re-arrested on January 25 he admitted his crimes. Mr Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, revealed how Renshaw had started to use online chatrooms when drunk and had ‘stumbled’ into the child sex abuse images. He said: “He had split up with his wife and moved out of the family home where he lived with his daughter. “It [drinking] worsened when he moved into a flat on his own. sometimes he needed a lunchtime drink just to get him through the day. “He was lonely and would turn to the internet. He began to use chat rooms and was, in his own words ‘stumbling’ into images of children.” Sentencing, Judge Flewitt QC spoke of the “shocking” age of the victims in the pictures and videos. He said: “The striking part of this case is the extremely young age of many of the children. Some of them are so young their ages are counted in months – not even years. “As you recognise, these are real children. They are not make believe images. Renshaw walked free from court but was subject to a community order of three years. Noting that Renshaw presented ‘a risk to the public from sexual harm’ he was ordered to attend a rehabilitation activity for thirty days, join an accredited sex offender treatment program and to undergo 120 hours of unpaid community service. He will be the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for five years and his tablet computer and USB storage drive will be destroyed.