Febuary 2013 ‘Lonely’ Burnley man (66) downloaded child abuse images A “LONELY” pensioner who had a stash of internet child abuse images, has been given a suspended jail sentence. Ian Menzies (66) was caught after his home in Burnley was raided, but claimed he had not accessed the images and it must have been done by persons unknown. He alleged he had had a phone call from a male about Windows a month before and that the man must have been acting in partnership with an elderly neighbour who he had fallen out with, the town’s crown court was told. The hearing was told Menzies had downloaded more than 350 indecent pictures of children. Most of them were teenagers, but some were of pre-pubescent youngsters. Menzies, who had never been in trouble before, admitted nine counts of making an indecent photo of a child. He was given eight months in jail, suspended for two years, with two years’ supervision and the internet sex offenders’ treatment programme. He was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and was given a 10 -year sexual offences prevention order, to allow police to monitor his use of the internet. David Macro (prosecuting) said on March 12th last year, police went to the defendant’s home in Brunshaw Avenue and seized his laptop computer and other items. Judge Andrew Woolman said: “I suspect these offences were borne out of loneliness on your part and you found a certain thrill from looking at these images on the computer.”