November 2009 Paedophile escapes jail after caught with 34,000 child photos A man who hid more than 34,000 indecent images of children has escaped jail. Paedophile Keane Ingram, of Grove Road, Lingfield, admitted 20 charges of making indecent images of children last month and appeared at Guildford Crown Court for sentencing on Friday. Kerry Nutting, prosecuting, told the court that the 29-year-old was caught as a result of Operation Flashgun carried out by Italian authorities in 2006. They had been monitoring a bulletin board used by paedophiles, she said, and had passed United Kingdom IP addresses to local police. Police arrested the defendant and seized 40 discs and computers from his home. A laptop also belonging to Ingram contained a “small number” of deleted images. He admitted to police that he used his computer to view the images while his wife was at work, Miss Nutting said. Images were encrypted and protected by passwords. Indecent images of children are broken down into five categories, with five being the worst. When they searched Ingram’s discs and computers police found 34,065 images in category one, 104 in category two, 66 in category three, 154 in category four and 11 in category five featuring young girls aged between eight and 10. Defending Katy Longan said Ingram, a computer expert, admitted the offences immediately to police and gave them “detailed and careful” information about where the images were stored and passwords. Judge Christopher Critchlow said: “There are a massive number of category one images, which is the least serious but there is also a reasonable number of category four and five images. He added: “They show depraved behaviour and exploitations and abuse of young girls.” The judge expressed his concern that Ingram had used encryption programmes and erasing software to hide the images. But he acknowledged Ingram’s efforts to get help since his arrest. Ingram was given a 36-month community order and enrolled on the internet sex offender treatmentprogramme. “If you break the order then you will almost certainly lose your liberty and go to prison,” Judge Critchlow added. Ingram, who has already signed onto the sex offenders’ register, was also ordered to pay £670 costs.