CHRISTOPHER SCHURING

A WIFE caught her husband with 1,500 indecent images of children, including young girls being raped and tortured, a court heard.

Christopher Schuring said he found the images while downloading music and formed a chronic obsession to videos and pictures of children being abused.

Prosecutor, Ben Thompson, told Bournemouth Crown Court that in West Woodyates in 2022, the defendant’s wife noticed he became addicted to his computer in the spare room.

The woman, who has been with the defendant for 15 years, said one day she noticed his computer unlocked and found a folder containing hundreds of images of young girls.

After being confronted, Schuring admitted to having hundreds if not thousands of files and packed his things to move to his parents’ house.

He tried to bring the hard drive with him, but his wife stopped him, and she hid it in her house.

It was said Schuring returned to the house to look after their shared dog, when the wife caught him attempting to wipe the hard drive.

Mr Thompson said the wife reported her husband but there was a serious delay in police action.

After caught trying to delete the evidence, the defendant’s wife drove him and the hard drive to the police station, where they were still not seen by officers.

Schuring was eventually found to have a total of 1,500 indecent images, including 313 photos and 87 videos of the most serious kind of abuse, category A.

He also had 344 images and 20 videos of category B, and 904 photos and 12 videos of category C.

The court heard that the images were mostly children aged between five and seven years old but were as young four.

The defendant also had a 59-minute video of a 13-year-old girl being tortured.

Mitigating, Lauren Matthews, said Schuring has expressed remorse and demonstrated an insight into his behaviour.

He admitted to gaining sexual gratification from the images, but Miss Matthews said there was a strong prospect of rehabilitation.

“He was very ashamed and the reason he tried to dispose of it was because he was in panic mode,” she said.

Judge Robert Pawson told the defendant: “If it wasn’t for people like you those children would not be raped and abused.” For three counts of making indecent photos of children, Schuring, 52 and of Swan Street in Cranborne, was handed a 12-month sentence suspended for two years.

He must complete 40 rehabilitation activity requirements days, complete 180 hours of unpaid work and was fined £3000.

He will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order and the sex offenders register for 10 years.