June 2013 Indecent images of children: Firefighter jailed for 21 months A firefighter who downloaded hundreds of indecent images of children and contacted underage girls on the internet has been jailed for 21 months Jacob Leigh Bowey (29), who is also known as Paul Atreides is a former Jersey fire and rescue service fighter that was found with 801 pictures and one movie, that included 109 of the worst kind of indecent images of children – on his computers Pictures of scantily-clad girls aged between six and twelve – which did not meet the criteria of illegal images -were also discovered, as well as web chat history discussing the abuse of children and babies Police first arrested Bowey 15th September 2010, after receiving information that he had tried to meet a 15 yr old girl in England and encouraged her to send erotic/indecent photos of herself during online web chat sessions The Royal court heard that on one online exchange, he described himself as a “paedo”, later telling police that he was a ephebophile – someone with a sexual interest in adolescents, that are generally aged between 14 and 16 years old Crown advocate said that the defendant faced no charges in relation to the web history chat but that Bowey’s actions were relevant because they added to the overall picture of the case He said, ” In effect, his interest in underage females was not confined to downloading indecent of images of children, also to contacting them online and encouraging discussions of a sexual nature with them” Bowey who admitted four counts of making 801 still images and one indecent movie of children between September 2008 and April 2011. Bowey also told police he had progressed from watching anime-style cartoons to viewing actual images of young girls He confessed when arrested for a second time on 12th December 2012, calling his behaviour, ” abnormal and self-destructive” Bowey was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment and was placed on the sex offenders register for five years from the date he pleaded guilty