May 2016 Lewisham Council IT expert avoids jail for possessing child sex abuse images A man who downloaded images of child sexual abuse only ‘appreciated the impact’ of his actions when he found himself in the dock, a court heard. Jonathan Thurtell used his IT expertise to download perverted movies from the ‘dark web’, but claimed he did not realise the consequences of doing so. He appeared at Cambridge Crown Court on Thursday, after pleading guilty to possessing a range of explicit photos and video clips. Although the 24 separate files found on his hard drive amounted to a relatively low amount, the crown said the content of the videos made his offending more serious. One was over two hours long, and featured clips of some 80 young girls being sexually abused. Prosecution solicitor Kim May, told the court two compliation videos had been found in Thurtell’s possession, with titles referencing ‘pre-teen’ and ‘jailbait’ girls. Quoting a report by a police officer who examined the videos, she said the total number of sexual images listed in the charge sheet “doesn’t reflect the number of unidenfied child victims.” Thurtell, 33, of Sweetpea Way, Cambridge, was arrested on April 23 last year, when several of his electronic devices were seized. The images were found on a specialist computer valued at over £2,000, which the court ordered be destroyed. At the time he worked in IT for a Cambridge firm, and admitted accessing a well-known child abuse website. He has since been dismissed from the role. He now works at the principle IMT Officer at Lewisham Council In his police interview he originally claimed to have sought out the images for ‘research’, a claim his solicitor Orla Daly admitted was false. “His particular personality has made it difficult for him to understand the full importance of what he was doing, and the real impact on the victims on the other end of this activity”, she said. “What has been achieved, perhaps only by virtue of these proceedings, is he has some insight into the fact that this is not a victimless offence and that there are real people at the end of this. “He has been absolutely shocked to the core by his experience.” Judge Jonathan Haworth sentenced Thurtell to six months in prison, suspended for a year. He also ordered him to pay £500 in costs, and to join the sex offenders register. He said: “You found difficulty in fully appreciating the impact of what you were doing. “This was an interest, a curiosity perhaps, in obtaining this material, and there can be no other reason for obtaining it than you own sexual gratification.”