April 2012 Nurse downloaded child porn A MENTAL health nurse who was stressed by his work viewed images of child pornography, a court has heard. Ian Milligan downloaded the material while looking at adult porn. He clicked onto “pop up” screens which gave access to child porn images which police later found on his computer. Milligan, 49, of Schoolhouse Lane, Halton, had pleaded guilty to 10 counts of making an indecent image of a child. Mr Francis McEntee, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said that a warrant was executed at the defendant’s address in December 2010. This was the result of a police operation concerning a website that had been corrupted, to give access to indecent images. That information led to the execution of a search warrant at Milligan’s address. The indecent images were recovered when a computer tower unit andexternal hard drive were examined. In police interview Milligan said that he had looked at adult porn and that ‘pop ups’ had appeared on the computer. He recognised they might have been referring to child sex images. He expressed a degree of regret and embarrassment, said the prosecution. The defendant was a man of previous good character. Mr Jacob Dyer, defending, said: “This case involves a small number of images on any view. “It appears they were images accessed over a limited time period.” Mr Dyer said the defendant had been a salesman before giving that up to become a mental health nurse. He lost his job as a result of the offences. The barrister added “Stress at work took its toll upon him. “He said he was looking at a lot of adult pornography, wasn’t sleeping properly and his work was affected”. He is now living at another address and his risk of re-offending was deemed to be low. Judge Robert Altham told Milligan: “You have recognised these cases involve the creation of images and some kind of actual abuse of children.” Milligan has now been placed on two years supervision and his sentence will include an internet sex offender treatment programme. He was told he will be on the sex offenders register for five years and banned from working with children for an indefinite period.
