September 2015 York man sentenced over child sex images A SIXTY-two-year-old family man has been given an 18-month suspended prison sentence, after he admitted downloading indecent images of children. Fred Mallinson, of Sixth Avenue, was yesterday sentenced at York Crown Court for 11 charges of downloading indecent pictures and videos of children as young as six, and one of possessing extreme pornography. The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told Mallinson that the fact he faces “public disgrace” should deter him from doing the same thing again. Mallinson’s home was raided early in the morning of July 19 last year. Police took away a computer which they found contained indecent videos of children, as well as evidence of search terms he had used and the names of deleted files which could only be accessed through specialist software. He was arrested and interviewed, and he later pleaded guilty at a court hearing. Prosecutor Richard Walters told the court that many of the images showed girls between ten and 15-years-old, but one of the more extreme ones showed a child as young as six. Defending Mallinson, barrister Kevin Blount said his client was a man of previous good character who had started by looking at legitimate sites, but soon found the illegal material through “peer to peer” sharing. Mr Blount said: “He has not gone out seeking child pornography, and there are a relatively small number of images. “Of course that does not excuse it because even one video is too many. But this is not a man who has spent a significant amount of time on this, this is a man who has dabbled on the edges.” Mr Blount went on to say his client had lived with the case hanging over his head for more than a year. Sentencing him, Judge Ashurst said he would give Mallinson credit for cooperating with the police. Whilst the quantity of images on Mallinson’s computer was not large in comparison with other cases the court sees, some had been of the most serious “category A”, he added. The judge handed Mallinson a six month prison sentence suspending over 18 months, with an order he should be supervised by the probation service for 12 months. He said: “These proceedings will have had quite an impact on your family, and you will have had to explain your position to your family and your employers”.