james kennedy Child Sexual Abuser in Leeds

Ex-soldier downloaded child porn at his home in Leeds A FORMER soldier downloaded over 1,000 abusive sexual images of children on a laptop at his home in Leeds, a court heard.

James Kennedy, 28, handed himself in at a police station to officers who were looking for him after receiving a tip off that illegal images were being downloaded at a property in the city.

You are a hard working man, I am quite sure, but you are also a paedophile.

Judge Tom Bayliss addressed Kennedy The father-of-two told the officers that his laptop was in for repair at a Currys store as it had been water-damaged.

He denied any offending and told the officers that they would not find any illegal images on the machine.

It was examined and found to contain a total of 1,185 illegal images and three movies.

Bashir Ahmed, prosecuting, said 12 of the images were category A – the most serious level of offending.

Two of the movies were also category A.

Kennedy then admitted responsibility for accessing the images but claimed he had done it out of curiosity and said he did not have a sexual interest in children.

Judge Tom Bayliss, QC, told Kennedy: “You have no previous convictions and have served in the army.

You are a hard working man, I am quite sure, but you are also a paedophile.” Kennedy, of Parkwood Road, Beeston, pleaded guilty to one offence of making indecent images of children.

The court heard Kennedy had served in the Army for seven years and now worked as a HGV driver.

Alex Boyd, mitigating, said Kennedy was ashamed and embarrassed what he had done and had let his family down.

Mr Boyd said Kennedy’s actions had been selfish and he was prepared to receive help to address his offending behavior.

Kennedy was ordered to take part in a three-year community order, during which he must take part in a sex offender treatment programme.

He was also told he must go on the sex offenders register for five years.