March 2014 Indecent images addict jailed for sharing ‘sickening’ child torture images A man has been jailed for swapping vile images of extreme child abuse with fellow paedophiles around the world. John Lyle sent pictures and movies which showed children being tortured and raped and exchanged fantasies with chat room users about abusing girls as young as five. Police found he had sent hundreds of images all around the world by e-mail and through peer to peer file sharing sites including 128 which showed rape or sadism. Lyle, aged 54, of Salisbury Avenue, Torquay, admitted 12 counts of distributing indecent images of children and 15 of making or possessing them. He was jailed for two years by Judge Phillip Wassall at Exeter Crown Court. He judge told him:”These offences were extremely serious and showed sexual activity between children and adults right up to sickening and completely depraved images involving torture and other forms of degradation. “You engaged in distribution and exchanged fantasies with other people of similar depraved mind sets. You did not do it for money but the most serious aggravating feature is the proliferation of these images through file sharing. “Ever time an image is recirculated it perpetuates and emphasises the serious sexual abuse which children were put through to create the images. That is why this is so serious that only immediate custody is justified.” Mr Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said Lyle’s computers were seized in a raid in January 2013 after he was traced through his internet provider. Officers found hundreds of images of child abuse on the computer and evidence he had used two hotmail addresses and peer to peer software to share more than 300 with other users. These included 115 images or movies and level four, which shows adults having sex with children and 13 at level five which shows sadism, bestiality or other extreme activity. They also found chat logs with some of those with whom he shared the material which included sexual talk about girls as young as five. Mr Jonathan Barnes, defending, said there had been no commercial element and the offences arose out of an ‘addiction’ to pornography which he is keen to address through treatment.