July 2009 Southmead man’s child porn shame A Southmead man who downloaded thousands of indecent photos of young girls from the internet has been handed a three-year community order. Michael Bartrum, aged 26, spent years accumulating 12,000 images of youngsters aged between nine and 16, Bristol Crown Court heard. Bartrum, of Ascot Road, pleaded guilty to 20 charges of making indecent photographs of children and a further charge of possessing indecent images. Judge Michael Longman told him: “There are a number of areas of concern in your case: the time over which you accessed material; you were a subscriber rather than someone who stumbled on the material by chance; and the large number of photographs you made as a result.” Bartrum was ordered to go on a sex offender training programme, told to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years, and to pay £100 costs. Richard Posner, prosecuting, said a police investigation into child abuse websites found Bartrum was a subscriber and his home was searched. Police recovered CDs, DVDs and two computer hard-drives, the court heard. Images stored comprised of 11,800 images and 268 movies. Mr Posner conceded 99 per cent of material was deemed to be at the lowest categories. Bartrum accepted using such websites but he had told police he did not look at pre-pubescent children, said Mr Posner. Robert Morgan-Jones, defending, told the court his client regarded the police’s intervention as “a relief”. He described Bartrum as an isolated individual and said: “He appears to have shut himself away and the computer took up a great deal of time in his life. He lives with his mother. His father died three years ago.”