February 2016 Pervert caught in web trap is jailed after emailing indecent images of children to ‘widow’ A man has been jailed after he was caught in a police trap distributing indecent images of children. John Harrison, aged 60, had been emailing a woman he believed to be Kim Roberts, apparently a widow from Kent, who made it known she had a son aged nine and a six-year-old daughter, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard. But the name was an alias used to find out how Harrison, from Tipton, would react. Mr Ian Windridge, prosecuting, said that during the email exchange Harrison gave ‘Ms Roberts’ an indication of what he would wish to do, sending her more than 200 inappropriate pictures and video footage of children. Three months later, on June 24 last year, police executed a search warrant at Harrison’s Upper Church Lane home, seizing computer discs and other equipment. An analysis report revealed there were 667 of the more serious category A images, 538 category B pictures, 3,777 category C images, 1,648 prohibited pictures and 21 images of extreme pornography. It was also noted that a number of relevant search terms were used, such as references to 11-year-olds, puberty, family love and pre-teen hardcore, the court heard. Harrison admitted distributing material to others but was not able to give further details, although it was known that he was sending material to someone with the user name of Stacy1195, the court heard. Mr Windridge said: “Kim Roberts was a fictitious name for someone who has connections with law enforcement. She played along, she did not encourage. It was a set-up to see what the defendant was prepared to do.” Mr David Bratt, defending, said Harrison was a married man, a hardworking employee and a ‘constructive’ member of society with no previous convictions. “It is somewhat tragic at the age of 60 to fall from grace in such circumstances,” he said. “He knows the public revulsion of these cases and acknowledges the harm that the nature of the crime causes to young children. It is a badge of shame he carries with some weight.” He said that Harrison regarded the email exchange as ‘fantasy role play’. But Judge Wait told him: “Every child who appears in a moving or still image is, in truth, being tortured and the people who do this do it for money, and there is only money to be made because of the interest that you and others have in it. You may not have paid but others do.” Harrison pleaded guilty to six charges of making indecent photos of children, two of distributing indecent photos of children, one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image and one of possessing a prohibited image of a child. He was sentenced to 18 months behind bars, placed on the sex offenders register and and made the subject of a sexual harm protection order. January 2015 Tipton man with child abuse images spared jail so he can receive ‘treatment’ A 64-year-old man found with child abuse images on his computer has been spared jail so that he can receive treatment. The 40 indecent images of children found on the computer of John Harrison included four of the worst kind, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard. The discovery was made in a police swoop following a tip off in August 2013 but the case had been delayed by the long backlog of images to be examined by police experts due to a shortage of resources, it was said. Harrison, from Geneva Road, Tipton, who was of previous good character, had admitted having fantasies about children, said Mr David Lees, prosecuting. The defendant admitted two charges of downloading indecent images of children between December 2004 and August 2013. Harrison was given a three-year community order which will involve him completing the community sex offender group programme. He was also put on the sex offender register for five years and told to pay £350 costs. Judge Robin Onions told him efforts would be made to rehabilitate him. “You could not complain if you received a short custodial sentence which would probably be counted in months. No rehabilitative work is done in prison and you would come out as you went in with your beliefs unchallenged,” Judge Onions told him. “The community sex offender programme takes three years to complete and has a good record of making people confront what they have done. “Whilst punishment is important, protection of the public is even more so and I believe they will be better protected by this community punishment.” Judge Onions concluded: “The number of images involved was very low when compared with other cases of this kind, you were of good character and it is a matter of regret that it took so long for the computer hard drive to be examined, although that is not through any fault of the police. It is the result of a lack of resources.”