May 2012 Six months’ jail for collection of child abuse files A FINANCIAL adviser who spent seven years seeking out images of children being sexually abused has been jailed. A court heard Michael Butterfield, of Leigh Road, Clifton, amassed a collection of 12,000 illegal pictures and video files, shared them with a friend and distributed them online. The 64-year-old and his friend, former military policeman Peter Horton, 74, appeared at Bristol Crown court yesterday. Butterfield pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing indecent images of children and 17 counts of making indecent images of children. Horton, of Whittington Road, Cheltenham, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing, one count of possessing and 14 counts of making indecent images of children. Judge Julian Lambert jailed Butterfield for six months and handed Horton a three-year community order, sparing him jail on account of his age and infirmity. Both men were given indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Orders banning them from unmonitored internet use, were ordered not to work with youngsters and must sign the sex offenders registerindefinitely. Richard Posner, prosecuting, said: “Michael Butterfield’s sexual gratification from seeking children being sexually abused and degraded in indecent images and movies is a crime committed over seven years. “From distributing hundreds of indecent images of children to Peter Horton, to more recent use of internet chat rooms to exchange the same, he has made and stored a library of over 12,000 indecent images of children. “Michael Butterfield has also breached the trust of his solicitor Andrew Gregg, senior partner in leading Bristol law firm Gregg Latchams, by asking him to store in a safe box indecent images of children for Peter Horton, without Mr Gregg’s knowledge. Those images were made by Peter Horton by manipulating photographs he had taken of a naked child – the daughter of a family friend – to depict him sexually abusing her.” The court heard police from the Child Abuse Investigation Team searched Butterfield’s home in July 2010 and looked at his computer. Mr Posner said: “He said that the material they were looking for would be on there – he just liked looking at nice bodies.” The court heard the police investigation led to a box Butterfield deposited at his Queen Square based solicitors’ office, which contained three USB sticks and 21 floppy discs of indecent material. Butterfield told police he had engaged in online fantasy chats, liked seeing girls in their mid to late teens naked and admitted supplying Horton with hundreds of images. Horton was arrested in June last year, and found to have a total of 1,800 indecent images. Richard Smith QC, defending Butterfield, said his client had an exemplary previous good character and had stopped offending. He said Butterfield’s family was left devastated by his offending. Mr Smith said: “This Saturday he will not be at his own daughter’s wedding.” Claire Malvern-White, defending Horton, said: “Mr Horton and Mr Butterfield met through naturism and he also developed a photographic hobby.” Of the manipulated pictures, she said her client “got pleasure in messing around with things”. Ms Malvern-White said Horton, who had medical issues including a brain tumour and severe heart attack, had been married for 44 years and his wife was still with him. She told the court: “He recognises he has made a huge mistake.”