47-YEAR-OLD MAN SEIZED WITH 5,000 INDECENT IMAGES OF CHILDREN, SENTENCED AT NOTTINGHAM CROWN COURT
A man caught with more than 5,000 indecent images of children and hundreds of videos was told "everyone who watches it feeds this cancer".The words were addressed to 47-year-old Daniel Holloway as he appeared at Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing over the shocking electronic stash.
Judge Gregory Dickinson QC, the Recorder of Nottingham, said, during his working life, he has seen far too many of these type of images.
"The thing that strikes me time and gain is the haunted look on the faces of these children".
And he said he did not understand how anyone can get pleasure from creating and downloading the material, and "it is a scourge".
Holloway, of Lovell Close, Nuthall, pleaded guilty to three charges of downloading indecent images in all three categories - from the most serious in Category A to the least serious in Category C.
He further admitted possessing prohibited images.
The offences came to light when a warrant was executed at his home address.
Holloway spoke with police when they arrived.
"The defendant admitted there 'may be some on my laptop', referring to images," explained prosecutor Stuart Pattinson.
Police seized laptops, mobile phones, hard drives and discs.
Despite Holloway's comment to police at his door, he made no comment in police interview.
Police took some time to examine his equipment.
They found more than 5,000 still images and nearly 800 videos, both across all three categories.
Mr Pattinson gave a description of one of the Category A video clips lasting 22 minutes and involving a naked child aged between 12 and 13 years.
All the Category A images dated back over a decade.
A one-minute video clip in Category B was of an adult involved in a sexual act with a ten-year-old girl.
One of the 53 prohibited images was of a computer generated child aged between ten and 12 years.
Holloway has previous convictions for dissimilar offences from 1993, the court heard.
Mitigating, Emma Hodson said he had taken steps to address the underlying issues leading to his offending and referred himself for therapy.
He was put on a three-year community order, ordered to attend an accredited sex offender programme and do 35 rehabilitation activity sessions.
He will have to sign on the sex offenders' register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years, and pay court costs of £670.
