STEVEN JAMES, BUSINESSMAN FROM DARLINGTON, SENTENCED FOR CHILD ABUSE OFFENSES IN JULY 2014
In July 2014, Steven James, a 36-year-old business manager from Darlington, was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of serious child abuse offenses.James had led a double life as a seemingly respectable professional while engaging in disturbing online activities involving young boys.
He duped a schoolboy into posing nude by pretending to be a 15-year-old American named ‘Beach Girl’ in online communications.
Police raided his Darlington home in May of the previous year, seizing his computers and discovering over 450 indecent images of children.
James attempted to conceal his criminal activity using specialized software that erased many images beyond forensic recovery and hid his internet search history.
Court proceedings revealed that he also encrypted large files, often refusing or being unable to provide police with passwords for access.
The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, addressed James directly, stating, “The gravamen of this offence is that nobody knows what remained on your computer.
Many who appear before me charged with indecent images remain in their homes, looking at the images and not seeking to carry out their fantasies, but you contacted that boy.
You knew how old he was, and you disguised your age and your gender...
you used him for your own vile interests.” James was prohibited from working with children and was registered as a sex offender for life.
Additional restrictions on his computer use were imposed after he admitted to making and possessing indecent images and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
During mitigation, Dan Cordey noted that since the police raid, which followed a tip from online child safety experts, James had lost his job and home.
He had since sought help from organizations specializing in treatment for child abusers and was trying to understand his own compulsions.
Mr.
Cordey explained, “His client had been an outgoing person but has become isolated, living alone in Darlington in a high-pressure management role.
He is appalled by his actions.
Of course, he recognizes that there are real victims in those pictures, and that haunts him and worries him.” He concluded by saying, “He will have to start again upon release and is aware that there will be a stigma for a very long time, if not for the rest of his life.”
