August 2013 Judge tells man to ‘deal with curiosity’ A man who downloaded ‘revolting child sex abuse’ videos was caught years later after he sold his laptop, a court heard. Gavin Marsden, aged 26, walked free from Sheffield Crown Court with a community order after his crimes, committed in 2008, finally caught up with him. He was found to have 16 indecent videos of children on his laptop – one containing a child as young as two or three, the court heard. Brian Outhwaite, prosecuting, said Dean Wainright bought the laptop for £65 from an internet site in 2011. Mr Outhwaite said: “He looked at it, found images on it that concerned him and reported it to the police. “The police examined the computer and Marsden was arrested.” Mr Outhwaite said Marsden, of Middle Ox Gardens, Halfway, Sheffield, claimed he found the images ‘by accident’, but officers found a list of Google searches, which implied he had looked specifically for images of young girls. He had two videos of grade one, three of grade two, five of grade three, and six of grade four – the most serious. The films featured girls in their early teens, one aged about nine or 10 and a two or three-year-old. Marsden admitted downloading the images. Andrew Swaby, mitigating, said: “Marsden is thoroughly ashamed of what he has embarked on.” “It can be said he has put all this behind him. The police examined other computers and found no similar content.” Sentencing him, Judge Michael Murphy QC said: “Your situation is different to that of many people who find these kinds of offences charged against them. “These were downloaded several years ago and didn’t come to light until your computer was sold. I am influenced by the fact there were no others, but you exhibited a deliberate curiosity in this revolting child sex abuse. “Having said that, the fact you downloaded this and did it more than once means there is a curiosity which, to say the least, is unhealthy and you need to deal with it.” Marsden was given a two-year community order and told to attend an internet sex offending course, sign the sex offenders’ register for five years and pay £65 compensation to Mr Wainright .