November 2011 Child abuse images found on man’s laptop A computer user was found to have downloaded child pornography on to his laptop when someone borrowed the device, a court heard. Philip Ellis accessed obscene images and movie clips of boys aged 13 years and under, while they were being abused. He was jailed for eight months at Leicester Crown Court on Monday. The sentence is to run consecutively with a two-and-a-half year term he is already serving for offences, including blackmailing a man he had sexual liaisons with in a park. Ellis (27), of South View, Manton, Rutland, admitted five counts of making indecent images, by downloading them from the internet. Alan Murphy, prosecuting, said in August 2009, Ellis’s sister’s boyfriend used the defendant’s laptop to play music on. He discovered there was indecent material on the computer and the police were contacted. Officers seized the laptop and a home computer and discovered numerous indecent images and clips of youngsters involved in sexual activity. The offences related to images and movies across all five categories on the scale of seriousness. There were 21 images and 30 indecent video clips including a compilation of 50 films. Mr Murphy said Ellis accessed the child pornography from a file sharing site on the internet and there was evidence he had used searched terms looking for material. He had also been accessing children’s chat sites – but did not face any charges in relation to that and there was nothing to suggest he had been grooming any children. The court heard that in April this year he was jailed for two-and-a-half years for offences including blackmail, relating to sexual liaisons in a park in Cambridge. He had been threatening to expose one of the victims as a paedophile, said Mr Murphy. David Ewings, mitigating, said: “He’s a man who from a young age struggled with his sexuality and was in turmoil. “He started looking at adult pornography to assess the situation and it started with pop-ups from adult sites advertising child pornography. “There’s no suggestion he paid for the images. “Although there were 50 clips in one movie, it involved one click to have all that material.” Mr Ewings said Ellis was suffering from depression following the tragic death of his brother, which saw him turning to cannabis and then losing his IT job and former home. Mr Ewings said to the judge: “You may be concerned he was in kids’ chat rooms, but that was in order to talk to teenagers who may have also been having difficulty with their sexuality, as he was.” Sentencing, Judge Sylvia De Bertodano said: “These images involved pre-pubescent and young teenage children engaged in sexual acts and are abused by adults. “People like you create a market for such images.” Ellis was placed on an indefinite sexual offences prevention order, which included restrictions on his future computer use. He was banned from working with children and will have to enrol on a sex offenders’ register for 10 years.