July 2014 Rotherham brothers had images of child abuse Two ‘lonely and isolated’ brothers have been sent on an intensive three-year sex offenders’ course after they downloaded over a million pornographic images between them. Robert and John Sanderson, aged 41 and 45, were found to have hundreds of thousands of pornographic images and videos which included legal adult porn, indecent images of children, extreme pornography and images of bestiality, Sheffield Crown Court heard. Neither of the brothers had ever had a relationship with anybody else and they lived ‘in their own little world’, the court was told. John Sanderson was a ‘hoarder’ who had been downloading porn from the internet for around eight years. His brother was a convicted sex offender who was being monitored by police. The court heard the huge hoard was discovered when officers attended the brothers’ home in Dearne View, Goldthorpe, Rotherham, to make checks on Robert. They found a naturist video on his computer featuring naked children and he was arrested. When officers went upstairs to John Sanderson’s room he handed over a number of discs telling the police they contained legal images. But the first image they opened was an indecent image of a child and he was arrested too. Judge Peter Kelson QC said sending them on the ‘highly successful’ three year Northumbria Group Programme was the best course of action for society and it could ‘cure them’ of their ‘illegal addiction’.