July 2004 Shopkeeper is jailed for viewing child porn A SHOPKEEPER who downloaded photographs and films of children as young as four being sexually abused by adults has been jailed by a judge at Bournemouth Crown Court. David John Hern, 52, of Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, admitted 16 charges of making indecent images of children and asked for a further 71 offences to be taken into consideration. He was snared under Operation Ore, a national police operation to capture internet paedophiles, and was sent to the crown court for sentencing by East Dorset magistrates. Counsel Nigel Mitchell, prosecuting, told the court police officers raided Hern’s previous address in December 2002, seizing computers and disks. They found 87 images, six of which were films and the rest photographs. Those included in the 16 charges were all graded at level four, the second most serious. Mr Mitchell described some of the images, which included men raping and indecently assaulting young girls and boys. “Some of the victims were as young as four,” he added. When interviewed by the police, Hern – who runs a shop selling science fiction magazines – told them he had first looked at such websites in 1998 out of curiosity. Defence counsel Paul Hester told the court Hern had been married twice and was being treated for depression before his arrest. He was looking for adult pornography when he encountered some of the images. “Morbid curiosity overtook him. He is extremely remorseful,” said Mr Hester. Judge Roger Jarvis told Hern: “I have viewed some of the images and they are deeply distressing. “Young children all over the world are having their lives ruined and the more people view this sort of disgusting material, the greater demand there is for adults to abuse children to satisfy that demand.” He sentenced Hern to four years, telling him he would serve no more than six months in jail before being released on licence. Hern was also disqual-ified from working with child-ren and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.