October 2013 Child abuse images pervert jailed A pervert who was caught with child abuse images while on bail for similar offences has been jailed for four years. A judge told Thomas James: “You took deviant sexual pleasure in those images. “You wanted to look at them and were prepared to look at them even though you knew custody must follow.” He pointed out that the 51-year-old was found to have downloaded about 1,000 images in all five categories of seriousness when police raided his home in Worsley Mesnes four days before Christmas 2011. Judge Stephen Everett criticised police for taking so long to prepare the case ready to hand to the CPS that “astonishingly” he was not charged until January this year. “It is just outrageous that the police should take more than a year to take you into court.” Liverpool Crown Court heard that police returned to James’s rented home in Worsley Mesnes Drive in July this year and found that he had again been downloading child porn, this time amounting to about 8,200 images in all categories. He admitted that he had obtained images from a file-sharing website and was interested in images of teenage boys. Harry Pepper, prosecuting, said that James had also given a password enabling others to share his indecent images involved in the December 2011 offences. James pleaded guilty to 35 offences of downloading indecent images and one of attempting to distribute such images. Judge Everettt described them as “disgusting and depraved. There are not just pictures of naked children, there are a substantial number of photographs of depraved sexual practices where young children were involved. “A matter to keep in mind for you and others like you is that it is not a victimless crime. “It may be you did not sexually involve yourself with youngsters although your predilection as a gay man is with young boys.” He added: “Here we have thousands of images, thousands of youngsters have been abused for the deviant sexual pleasure of you and others like you which is why matters like this are so serious.” He pointed out that James has two previous similar convictions and warned him that if he did not stop his behaviour he would receive longer and longer sentences. He ordered him to sign the Sexual Offenders’ Register for life and imposed an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order restricting his internet use. Paul Treble, defending, said that James came from a socially isolated background and had been unable to form adult relationships. “He developed into a man who finds pictures of young boys sexually attractive and stimulating.” He has admitted his guilt and knows he needs assistance, he added.