YORK MAN HAD HUNDREDS OF INDECENT IMAGES OF CHILDREN
A SEX offender whose many years of perverted interest in children began when he himself was at primary school has been given a suspended prison sentence.Police found sexual pictures of children as young as one when they raided Ciaran John Brandenburg’s home in Wigginton, said Charlotte Noddings, prosecuting.
They also found evidence his perverted interest in children had started when he was nine and continued until he was arrested aged 20, and that he had sent indecent images of children to other people via the internet.
Brandenburg, now 21, of Feversham Crescent, Wigginton, pleaded guilty to distributing indecent images of children, three charges of having indecent images of children and one of having prohibited images of children.
Judge Simon Hickey said Brandenburg had made attempts to hide some of the images he downloaded in secret or disguised files.
“You were very young when this started,” he told Brandenburg.
“I think you were (a risk to the public) when you were caught, but not since.” He imposed a 10-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition Brandenburg does a 43-session sex offenders’ rehabilitation programme and 30 days’ rehabilitative activities.
Brandenburg must also register as a sex offender for 10 years with the police.
Ms Noddings said police got a tip-off that Brandenburg was downloading indecent images of children using social media.
They raided his home on September 25, 2023, and found images on three IT items including a hard drive and a mobile phone, which was downloading material when it was seized.
They found evidence of chats Brandenburg had held on encrypted social media, including one where he and another person discussed what they would like to do sexually to a girl pictured in a bikini.
Brandenburg had himself sent sexual images of children of the least serious kind to other people.
The images found on equipment at Brandenburg’s home included 367 of the worst kind of sexual images of children downloaded between 2015 and 2023, 280 of the middle category downloaded between 2015 and 2023, and a few hundred of the least serious kind downloaded between 2020 and 2023.
They also found prohibited images of children.
Other images had been downloaded in 2011 when Brandenburg was nine years old and therefore below the age at which he could commit a criminal act.
They were not among the images listed in the charges.
Brandenburg's offence involved a multiple-year pattern of possession, distribution, and creation of indecent images of children, with the police discovering a substantial collection ranging from images of the most serious category to less severe ones.
He was sentenced to a suspended prison term, with mandatory registration and participation in a rehabilitation program.
