THACKLEY MAN JAILED FOR ACCESSING INDECENT IMAGES OF CHILDREN
A MAN who turned to drink and accessed indecent images of children as young as six during the Covid pandemic has been told he has “an unhealthy interest” in such material.Antony Lusty, 58, of Park Road, Thackley, Bradford, will now have to sign the sex offender register for the next 10 years.
Addressing Lusty at Bradford Crown Court, Mr Recorder Anthony Hawks told him: “It’s no excuse to say that ‘I got lonely during Covid and I drank too much’.
Lots of people were isolated during Covid, and no doubt a lot of people drank too much, but most of them didn’t decide to look at pictures of children being sexually abused.
… You have an unhealthy interest in this sort of material … and that will have to be addressed.” Prosecutor Adam Walker told the court how police raided Lusty’s home on April 14, 2022, after receiving intelligence that he may have been accessing indecent images of children.
They seized a Samsung tablet which, when downloaded, was found to contain 60 extreme pornographic images, one prohibited image of a child, 49 Category C images and six Category A images, the most serious.
The children being abused were aged between six and 11.
The investigation showed that Lusty possessed the images between November 9, 2021, and April 13, 2022.
During two interviews, he exercised his right to silence.
Sentencing Lusty to a total of eight months imprisonment suspended for two years, Recorder Hawks said: “You have to answer for very unpleasant offences.
It needs to be said that you cannot say to yourself ‘I didn’t create these images of children being sexually abused.
I simply looked at them’.
You know … that in a way you are as guilty as the vile people who made these images in the first place.
If there wasn’t a market for people to look at this filth then those children might not have been abused.” Lusty was ordered to undertake 50 rehabilitation activity days and to complete a six-month alcohol treatment requirement.
As well as registering as a sex offender he was also made the subject of a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Recorder Hawks ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the Samsung tablet.
Lusty must also pay the victim surcharge.
