BARRIE KEITH

CONSETT MAN GIVEN SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR DOWNLOADING INDECENT IMAGES OF BOYS

A man in his late sixties who has gone through his life without any previous convictions was given a suspended prison sentence for downloading indecent images of children.

Durham Crown Court was told police went to an address in Consett where defendant Barrie Keith lives alone, on April 18, last year.

The court heard he was cautioned and arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent child images before a search of the property led to the seizure of a lap-top computer.

Examination of the device led to the discovery of both still and moving images of children from a hard drive, having been created over a two-year period dating back to March 12, 2021.

A browser also recovered by police revealed repeated searches for paedophilic content from the internet.

Although they were deleted, software used enabled them to be discovered.

The children featured, all boys, ranged in age from six to 14, and the aggravating features were acts of penetration to which they were subjected and the ages of the child victims involved.

The defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of making (downloading) indecent images of children, one each covering all three categories of severity of such material, when he appeared before Newton Aycliffe magistrates last month.

He was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, during which he must take part in 30 probation-overseen rehabilitation activity days, and complete 100 hours’ unpaid work.

Keith was also made subject of notification requirements on the Sex Offenders’ Register, plus the terms of the SHPO, both for ten years.

A deprivation order was made for the confiscation of the recovered devices.