KWIK FIT SUPERVISOR THOMAS EARL FROM BICESTER SENTENCED FOR POSSESSING INDECENT IMAGES IN JULY 2017

In July 2017, Thomas Earl, a supervisor at Kwik Fit in Bicester, appeared before Recorder Rhona Campbell after being found in possession of a significant collection of indecent images. Earl, aged 26 and residing at Restharrow Mead, had confessed to viewing illicit material depicting abused children, including a toddler and teenagers. Initially, he lied to police, claiming he had come across the images while downloading music online.

The court heard that police executed a search at Earl's home on November 22 of the previous year after investigators suspected illegal material was being shared from the premises. They discovered 41 images and videos, with evidence that Earl had attempted to download hundreds more. Prosecutor Robert Lindsey explained that Earl had used peer-to-peer software on his Samsung laptop to find the images, employing specific search terms online.

During police interviews, Earl admitted he would visit peer-to-peer sites to download music, occasionally receiving ‘bad files’ that contained indecent images. He claimed he disliked the material and would delete it immediately, but he still continued to visit the sites. Defense barrister Lucy Ffrench acknowledged that Earl admitted to searching for the images but struggled to explain why he looked at them. She explained, “He accepts he was not entirely honest, or honest at all, in the first police interview. He does accept that it was a compulsion of his but denies it was a sexually motivated compulsion.”

Earl lives with his fiancée and her mother and was concerned that a conviction might cost him his job. He pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child and four counts of attempting to make such images between August 2015 and November 2016.

In sentencing, Recorder Campbell sentenced Earl to 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement, a 30-day sex offenders treatment program, and a sexual harm prevention order. She also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the laptop used in the offenses. Earl is required to pay £425 in costs and must register as a sex offender for ten years.