RODERICK GOMER SENTENCED IN REDCAR FOR POSSESSING CHILD ABUSE IMAGES
In September 2017, Roderick Gomer, 61, was sentenced after admitting to possessing indecent images of children.Gomer, who disclosed to staff at an adult mental health facility in Redcar that he had been downloading these images, later handed himself in to his solicitor with his laptop.
The device contained graphic images dating back to 2013.
Prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court that some of the children depicted in the images were as young as six months old, and some appeared to be in pain.
An analysis of the laptop revealed 53 Category A images, 141 Category B images, and 37 Category C images, including one involving extreme pornography with animals.
Gomer had prior convictions, totaling nine offences across seven cases, which included breaches of a criminal behaviour order that prohibited threatening or pretending to threaten self-harm by walking into traffic.
Miss Haigh noted that after Gomer’s disclosure at Foxrush House in Redcar on October 27, 2015, he refused to communicate further with police.
Defence lawyer Duncan McReddie explained that Gomer had voluntarily reported himself and that he went to his solicitor with the laptop, admitting he shouldn’t have been viewing the images.
McReddie added, “He could have destroyed the computer after which there would be no evidence.
He admitted using pornography for some time while working abroad and being dependent on alcohol.
He clearly has mental health difficulties, and it is said that such people ought not to be in jail.
If he is to be rehabilitated, any help he needs is best provided while he is in the community.” Judge Deborah Sherwin, acknowledging Gomer’s mental health and alcohol issues, stated, “It is clear that you are someone who has mental health difficulties and problems with alcohol.
Suspending a sentence would be setting you up to fail and so I think that the most appropriate sentence is one of immediate custody.” Gomer, who has no fixed address, was sentenced to nine months in prison and received an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He pleaded guilty to five charges of possessing indecent images.
The court also ordered his laptop to be forfeited and destroyed.
