October 2007 Child porn sergeant escapes jail A former Dyfed-Powys Police sergeant whose estranged fiancée reported him to colleagues, has been spared jail after admitting possessing child pornography. Mark Bretherick’s former partner had discovered he used internet child porn sites, Swansea Crown Court was told. The 33-year-old, from near Welshpool, received a three-year supervision order after the judge was shown the image. He was also put on the sex offenders register for five years and will have to complete a sex offenders programme. Judge Christopher Morton decided Bretherick was not a danger to the public. Bretherick had admitted a charge of possessing an indecent image of a child in September on the eve of a jury trial. At the same hearing it was directed that 17 other charges should all remain on file. It came after the prosecution acknowledged the impossibility of proving the images were downloaded after a change in the law. Until January 11 2001, the possession of such indecent images of children were only dealt with by magistrates courts. After that date the change meant that they were dealt with only in crown courts. Had they been downloaded before the change in the law it would have been necessary to start a prosecution within six months. Jim Davis, prosecuting, told the court on Friday the images were found on two laptops in Bretherick’s possession. One of the two laptops held just one image which it could be clearly proved had been downloaded after the law change. Mr Davis told how the police were alerted to Bretherick’sactivities by his estranged fiancée. She had been packing up her things in the house they had shared in December 2005 after they had decided to separate when she had discovered documents in Bretherick’s handwriting listing illicit websites, he said. “As a result of finding that document the police were informed and his laptops seized,” Mr Davis said. “An indecent thumbnail photograph was found on a Rock laptop, but it showed that the full-size photograph had been on the laptop at some time. “The full image itself had been deleted.” Bretherick – who had been based at Newtown – had voluntarily resigned from his job and felt only “deep deep shame”, the court heard. Michael Mather-Lees, defending, said: “He is very much a shadow of the former Mark Bretherick. “He wants, through me, to express his apologies and shame for himself and what he has brought on others.”