FRANK BRADLEY

WARRINGTON PAEDOPHILE SENTENCED AFTER NURSES DISCOVER SICKENING IMAGES ON COMPUTER

TWO nurses visited a Warrington mans house to help him, but they left shocked by what they had seen on his computer.

The next visitors at Frank Bradleys home were police officers, who rumbled his sickening stash of thousands of depraved photos and videos of children being sexually abused.

As a result, the 66-year-old was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing them.

He initially pleaded not guilty and did not attend his trial, with a warrant issued for his arrest, but he later admitted all of the offences, as well as an additional charge of breach of bail.

Having been convicted, he appeared back before Liverpool Crown Court on Monday to face sentence.

Lee Bonner, prosecuting, told the court that two district nurses attended his Warrington home on April 20, 2023, for a routine appointment to change the dressing on his ulcers.

One of the nurses noticed a computer in his room, with the screen showing photos of young girls, believed to be aged between six and eight.

The images were described as being ‘very sexualised, with young girls wearing inappropriate underwear and posing in sexualised positions’.

Shocked, she took a photo of the screen and informed her colleague, resulting in them informing the police.

Officers from Cheshire Police visited the defendant’s home on May 22, 2023, arrested Bradley, and sent a number of seized electronic devices for a forensic analysis.

During his police interview, the defendant said that he downloaded images of female models in their mid to late teens, but that this was not for sexual gratification.

He also said that he ‘sometimes downloaded indecent images inadvertently’, but that he always ‘scrubbed’ them immediately by deleting them.

When asked whether officers would find any indecent images on his computer, he said: “No comment, but there shouldn’t be.” Officers searched his tower computer and three storage devices and confirmed the presence of 2,365 indecent images of children being sexually abused.

The majority of these – 2,337 – were graded as category C, which is the least severe category available, but 25 were category B and three were category A – the most severe form of abuse involving child rape.

The images were mostly stored in readily accessible areas, in folders with names linked to indecent images such as PTHC, meaning pre-teen hardcore, the court heard.

There was also evidence that some of the files were videos rather than photos, and these had been watched by Bradley.

Mr Bonner explained that the case was aggravated by the age and vulnerability of the children being abused, which ranged between 10 and 14 years of age.

The depraved collection was also of high volume and was amassed over a ‘significant and prolonged’ period of more than five years, from January 2018 to May 2023.

In mitigation, Anthony O'Donohoe, defending Bradley – who has no previous convictions – said that his client’s best mitigation was his guilty pleas, albeit they were entered at a very late stage.

It was also said that the defendant, who entered court in a wheelchair and carrying a walking frame, was in an ‘extremely poor health and physical condition’.

But the court heard that he is being offered help to tackle the issues behind his offending.

Bradley, of Blackburn Close in Longbarn, was sentenced by judge Anil Murray to 10 months in prison, but this was suspended for the next two years.

During this time, he must also complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

In addition, the defendant must sign the sex offender register and abide by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order, with both lasting for a period of 10 years.