HOLMES CHAPEL MAN JAILED FOR DISTURBING CHILD ABUSE IMAGES
A PAEDOPHILE has been jailed for three years for downloading more than 9,000 indecent images of children.Former Winsford man Daniel Tunney, 26, now of Elm Drive, Holmes Chapel, admitted 15 offences of downloading images, one of possessing the images and four offences of distributing the images when he appeared at Chester Crown Court on Friday.
Investigators and Judge Elgan Edwards stated that the images and videos seized from Tunney’s home in East Dudley Street were among the worst cases of child abuse and torture they had ever witnessed.
DS Mark Fletcher from the public protection unit based at Winsford said: “The images that Tunney had were horrendous.
We deal with this type of offender day in day out, but this was, in our experience, one of the worst personal collections of images graphically depicting children as young as 18 months old.” Tunney also admitted refusing to divulge his password, requiring police to pass the computers to MI5 for access to some images protected by sophisticated software – a first in Cheshire.
Judge Edwards recommended the officers involved, DC Derek Sheridan and DC Gary Brookes, for a commendation.
Tunney’s collection included 370 level five images—the most severe, including sadism—along with over 2,400 level four, 2,010 level three, 697 level two, and 3,632 level one images.
The defendant posed as a 14-year-old girl online and was caught when creating an account on Ranchi, a website used to discuss child abuse.
During sentencing, Judge Edwards called him ‘disturbed’ and remarked how anyone could derive satisfaction from such images, calling it “very sick mind.” Kim Halsall, his lawyer, cited Tunney's difficult childhood and noted he has not accessed a computer since arrest.
Tunney was banned from working with children for life and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
The police declined to provide a photograph for publication.
