stephen browning Child Sexual Abuser

August 2010 Child porn man is spared jail term INTERNET paedophile Stephen Browning has avoided prison after police found hundreds of downloaded child porn images in a raid on his Exmouth home, including some of the worst possible.

The 58-year-old, who was living in Mount Pleasant Avenue at the time, was given a three-year community order at Exeter Crown Court, including an order to attend a rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.

Recorder Sarah Munro QC said this was more likely to protect the public from Browning’s behaviour in the long run, than the short prison sentence he would receive under legal guidelines.

Browning, who now lives in Lower Stone Close, Frampton Cotterell, Bristol, pleaded guilty to 18 offences of making an indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child.

These had been downloaded on his Dell laptop computer and some of them saved on CDs, over an 11-month period, before they were discovered in a police raid on his home.

Prosecutor David Bowen said Browning had downloaded the images between October 30, 2007, and September 4, 2008.

He said: “The final date was the execution of a search warrant.

These were children aged between four-years-old and 14.” There was a total of 2,846 images, ranging from level one, which is the least offensive, to level five, which is the worst possible.

These included 2,610 at level one, 54 at level two, 64 at level three, 108 at level four and ten at level five.

Mr Bowen said: “The warrant was executed and CDs, DVDs and discs were seized as well as a laptop computer.

“The defendant attended the police station voluntarily and admitted the material was his and he was the sole user of the equipment.

“It went off for analysis and was found to contain images both on computer and in recorded format.” Defence counsel Kelly Scrivener said Browning had no criminal record and a pre-sentence report assessed a “lengthy community order” as being appropriate.

She said Browning would be required to attend a sex offender treatment programme and then two more intense programmes afterwards.

“He is a hardworking man who, unlike many people who come before this court, has made substantial admissions,” she said.

“He has a genuine wish to seek help and take part in the programmes….if he was taken into immediate custody, the risk to the public would increase as he could not be monitored.” She added: “His greatest punishment is the social attitudes he will have in the community.

No-one in his family or work knows of these proceedings and he is on the verge of a breakdown.” Recorder Munro said: “In these circumstances, I take the view that the public would be better protected by me adopting the recommendations in the pre-sentence report.” She said Browning must be supervised for three years, have a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for three years and put his details on the Sex Offender Register until further notice