March 2012 Bristol man jailed over thousands of child abuse photos A FAMILY man who downloaded nearly 70,000 child abuse photos from the internet has been jailed for eight months. Daniel Hulbert was accessing adult porn but was lured into child images and looked at them for an “illicit thrill”, Bristol Crown Court heard. Hulbert, 33, of Hazel Cote Road, Whitchurch, pleaded guilty to ten charges of making an indecent photograph of a child. Judge Carol Hagen told him: “There were more than 60,000 images, the majority of which were in lowest category one. It seems to me custody is inevitable.” The judge gave Hulbert a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, banning him from unsolicited internet use and ordered he register as a sex offender for ten years. Amy Jones, prosecuting, said authorities received intelligence about a Luxembourg-based internet website, and tracked down Hulbert as a user. An investigation revealed that, from as early as 2007, Hulbert was online and downloading pictures of pre-teen girls. Miss Jones said Hulbert downloaded 67,873 child photos, but only 13,473 were made the subject of charges. The vast majority of those were deemed to be category one seriousness, depicting children posing. Only eight were deemed to be category five images, depicting the most serious level of abuse. Edward Burgess, defending, said his client became a father for the first time in December last year. He conceded viewers of this kind of material involved themselves in a “filthy trade” exploiting youngsters. Mr Burgess said: “This is man of good character who is married and his wife is fully aware of these proceedings, as are her family, but not his family. His wife supports her husband but she does not condone his behaviour; very far from it.” Mr Burgess said that, for his client, there was an element of thrill to what he had done. Mr Burgess told the court: “He understands he has a very serious problem. He may not understand that problem yet. He may not articulate what the problem is but there are hopeful signs.” The court heard Hulbert had been in contact with a support foundation after showing considerable remorse and shame.