NORFOLK MAN, 76, SPARED JAIL OVER EXTREME INDECENT IMAGES
A 76-year-old man who became isolated after the death of his wife amassed more than 1,000 indecent images in the hunt for "more and more extreme" material, a court has heard.Norwich Crown Court heard that Andrew Deaton had never offended before, but by the time police turned up at his Newton Flotman home in June 2022 he was found to have collated a library of more than 1086 indecent images.
This stash included 12 images and 43 videos found to be category A, the most serious.
Richard Paterson, prosecuting, said that among the collection of images found on various devices - which dated back to 2016 - was an extreme pornographic image portraying an "act where life was threatened".
Amongst other extreme pornographic images he had was one containing 23 dogs, a cat and a pig.
In addition to the images, Deaton had undertaken online chats with accounts who he thought had been young males, encouraging them to play with themselves and sending images of his own genitals.
Deaton, of Brightons Road, Newton Flotman, appeared at court using a walking stick on Wednesday (October 1) for sentencing.
He had previously admitted a total of 27 charges, including possessing an extreme pornographic image, three offences of making indecent photographs of a child and possessing a prohibited image of a child.
He also admitted seven offences of attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity and seven offences of attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to look at an image of sexual activity.
Among the other offences he admitted were attempting to cause or incite a boy under 13 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.
Recorder Gregory Bull said the material Deaton had been looking at were all of children being physically and psychologically abused, which happened “so people like you can watch them”.
But he accepted Deaton had not offended before or since the offences, and imposed a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years.
Deaton was also ordered to carry out 18 days Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR), fined £250 and ordered to pay £150 costs.
He was made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and put on the sex offenders’ register, also for 10 years.
