February 2004 Man jailed over child sexual abuse images A County Tyrone man who admitted possessing 50,000 indecent images of children has been jailed. Gary William Ewing, 38, from Omagh was put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and imprisoned for one year. Police raided Ewing’s Riverview Park home in September 2002 following an FBI tip-off, Omagh Crown Court heard on Friday. About 44,000 images downloaded from the internet were found on his computer, while a further 7,000 were found on CDs. Barrister Philip Mateer said Ewing initially told police he had “some pictures of children that I shouldn’t have”. However, when later cautioned he said there were many other pictures on the computer. “He told police he was spending over three hours every day on his computer and that is how he obtained so many of the images and that he enjoyed looking at the images of children,” added Mr Mateer. The lawyer said analysis of the computer showed Ewing, who pleaded guilty to 50 specimen charges of making indecent photographs of children, had “visited numerous internet sites, the names of which would have indicated they were likely to involve child pornography”. While there was evidence Ewing had emailed others, there was no indication he had been trading in child pornography, the court heard. Lord Justice McCollum said the trading of child sexual abuse images was “evil and depraved” and caused “indescribable harm” to the abused children involved, but that Ewing had not attempted to trade in such images.