May 2016 Man caught with 12,000 child abuse videos and pictures – but avoids jail A MAN caught with thousands of child sexual abuse images claimed he had an “artistic interest” in them. At Bolton Crown Court David Collins was handed a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. David Clarke, prosecuting, told how police, acting on information, raided Collins’ Ashby Close, Farnworth, home on August 23 2013 and seized an Acer tower computer. When officers examined the computer they found around 12,000 indecent videos and pictures of children, many of whom were aged between eight and 12, which Collins, who is a father, had downloaded between September 2011 and June 2013. Collins’ search history indicated he had been looking for child porn and police found he had 128 of the most serious category A images on his computer, 47 category B images and thousands of category C pictures. Peter Warne, defending, said Collins, aged 46, had become addicted to child sexual abuse images “He is embarrassed and ashamed and says that nothing like this will ever happen again,” said Mr Warne, who added that Collins initially claimed he had an artistic interest in the material. “He accepts things developed over time.” The court heard that Collins’ partner has left him as a result of the court proceedings. Sentencing Collins to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, Recorder Richard Gioserano said he rejected any artistic motive for looking at the images. “If you didn’t have to begin with, you did develop a sexual interest in young children, particularly young girls,” said the Recorder. “The material that you were accessing is not only abhorrent to right minded people, the accessing of it also perpetuates the sexual abuse of children.” In addition to the suspended prison sentence, Collins will be subject to supervision for 18 months and must undertake 200 hours unpaid work. He was placed on the sex offender’s register for 10 years, is barred from working with children and vulnerable adults and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years.