October 2008 Paedophile walks free A PAEDOPHILE who swapped hundreds of pornographic images of young girls online walked free from court on Friday – to the disgust of family members who reported him to the police. Kieran Boyd, aged 24, of Parr Street, in Howley, admitted exchanging pictures of girls as young as five on Internet chatrooms. The father-of-two’s depravity came to light when he sold his laptop computer to Angela Kingstone, the sister of his 21-year-old girlfriend, Beverley Kingstone, in January. But Warrington Crown Court heard that because the majority of the 484 images were ‘low-level’ pornography and Boyd had not exchanged them for money Judge Thomas Teague would not impose an immediate custodial sentence. Speaking after the case, Angela Kingstone, aged 32, of Middlewich, said she was disgusted by the verdict. She said: “You try to do the right thing and report this to the police and this is what happens. “These people should serve years in prison. “What message does this send out to the likes of him? That you can have more than 400 images of children but if most of them are considered to be ‘low-level’ you’ll just get a slap on the wrist? “He’ll be laughing at that sentence.” Angela chose not to report the matter initially because her sister was pregnant with Boyd’s baby and she was concerned about her sister’s health. However, two days after her sister gave birth in June she went to the police and they seized further computers and a USB memory stick from Boyd’s home. Officers also found in a bedside drawer a hard copy of an image depicting two 10-year-old girls engaged in sexual activity. Indecent photographs of children are classified in five categories, with level one images being photographs of children posing naked and level five images the most disturbing sexual acts. Boyd had 405 level one images, eight level two images, 29 level three images, 39 level four images and three level five images. He also possessed 94 ‘borderline’ photographs. Boyd, now living at Arndale in Beechwood,Runcorn, has one previous conviction for assault. The shaven-headed pervert, wearing a blue sweatshirt and trousers in court, had previously described his problems as an ‘addiction’. He admitted 11 counts of making indecent photos of a child and two of possessing indecent photos of a child. Judge Thomas Teague described the pictures as ‘disgusting’ and said the offences were serious enough to warrant a 12-month jail sentence. But he said if Boyd was sent to prison he would not receive any treatment for his problems. He said: “You would serve about half that time, without having had any real help.” The judge said he believed Boyd had shown an ‘unusually’ high level of insight into his problems. He handed him a 12-month sentence suspended for two years along with a two-year supervision order. Boyd will sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years and is subject to a five-year sexual offences prevention order, which controls his contact with children, including his own, and his use of computers and the Internet. He will attend a sexual offending group work programme and live at Linden Bank, in Sandbach.