August 2011 Pervert had thousands of child abuse images A FORMER bus driver who downloaded thousands of child abuse photographs from the internet has been jailed for a year. Mark Briggs, who resigned from First Bus when his sordid collection came to light, told police he sought images of girls aged 16 or 17, Bristol Crown Court heard. An investigation revealed he possessed 4,800 abuse images and 51 abuse movies as well as one extreme pornography clip involving bestiality. Police computer forensic experts identified a further 28,000 pictures which they were unable to access. Briggs, 50, a grandfather of Selby Road, Speedwell, told police he was “a prat” and pleaded guilty to 18 charges involving downloading the indecent material and one of possessing an extreme pornography clip. Judge Mark Horton told him: “I have seen the images concerned. “They concern extremely young children and not simply those aged under 16 but a child not yet a year old. “You have to understand that those types of images and the damage done does not simply live with them physically but causes the huge physiological damage of knowing that for the remainder of their living days there will be perverts like you around viewing such images for their own enjoyment.” Briggs was told to register as a sex offender for ten years, barred from working with children or vulnerable people for life, given an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order designed to keep him away from youngsters and ordered not to access internet file sharing sites or any pornography. Mark Humphries, prosecuting, said police acting on information established Briggs’ computer address was used to download the material. He said: “Police went to his home and he was there with his wife and two-year-old granddaughter. “His computer equipment was seized and he went to the police station and admitted ‘I downloaded stuff I shouldn’t have’.” When interviewed Briggs said he was seeking out teenage girls. He had saved eight or nine movie clips and he was not sexually aroused by what he was viewing. Police found almost 5,000 images, the vast majority of which were in the lowest Category One degree of harm, showing youngsters posing. Mr Humphries said: “The images and movies were categorised into folders, which took considerable effort on the defendant’s part. “He was using a file-sharing site from February 2007 to April 2010 and there were 28,090 images police were unable to access. They were unable to open them. “He was downloading into his account and the images were available for others to view. “He didn’t distribute them but if somebody sought to obtain copies from him they could do so.” Nicholas O’Brien, defending, said: “The day after police seized his equipment he presented himself voluntarily at the police station and admitted what he had done and called himself a prat. “The images included a child aged under one and he says he may have glimpsed some and rejected them. “He says he files everything where he can find it and that applies to electricity bills and the like. “It’s purely out of habit that he files everything – legitimate or illegitimate. “There is no suggestion he shared or intended to share with anyone else.” Mr O’Brien said that his client had been a bus driver but had resigned, would probably lose his licence to drive a public vehicle and be left seeking a lower paid van driving job.