July 2007 OAP avoids jail over child abuse images A pensioner who admitted providing a “safe house” for a haul of child abuse images has been given a suspended sentence. Blackfriars Crown Court heard the images were found on two CDs when police raided James Browning’s home in Camden, north London, in November 2005. It was accepted that Browning, 70, who pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child porn, was keeping the images for someone else. Judge John Hillen said the collection was as “bad as it gets”. Browning was given a 10-month sentence, suspended for two years, as well as being ordered to register as a sex offender. Sentencing Browning, the judge said: “Half of these images were levels four and five, and the level five images were as bad as it gets. “There were babies being subjected to abuse and there were children weeping. “By viewing such images you were helping to create a market for this sort of abuse.” But he said after considering the case, his age and previous good character he had decided against a custodial sentence. The court also heard that while the defendant admitted looking after the material for someone else, instead of identifying the source he named an innocent man he mistakenly thought was out of the country and untraceable. Consequently that person was arrested and his employers made aware of the allegations against him. Although no action was taken he was called as a witness in the case against Browning and “found the entire experience most distressing”, prosecutor James Norman said.