REDCAR TEENAGER SENTENCED FOR DOWNLOADING VILE CHILD ABUSE IMAGES
A teenager who downloaded vile child abuse images has walked free from court.According to reports, Harvey Flounders was aged between 15 and 17 when he downloaded the images and videos onto five different digital devices.
The 19-year-old had stored 19 images and videos in the most serious category showing a young child being raped by an adult, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Emma Atkinson stated: “The police attended the defendant’s address in February 2023 following information about indecent images.
Five devices were seized, two phones, a laptop, an iPad and a hard drive, indecent images were found on all of the devices.” The Category A video was 53 seconds long and stills from the video were also found stored on his other devices.
Flounders pleaded guilty to downloading 19 Category A images; three Category B images; and ten Category C images between August 2021 and February 2023.
Mitigating, John Dove said: “He was a child at the time of the offending, the dates cover a time period when he was between 15 and 17.
Since the date of his arrest there has been no other trouble.” The court sentenced Flounders to a two-year community order, recognizing his lack of previous convictions, but warned he would only get one chance.
Recorder Mark McKone KC remarked: “You are now 19 with no previous convictions.
Your age and lack of previous convictions are two matters I take into account very much in your favour.
These offences are always serious, the Category A images are literally images of children being raped and when people seek out these images on the internet that encourages people to make these images – that encourages people to cause children to be raped to make them.” Flounders was ordered to attend 40 days of rehabilitation activity and his digital devices were confiscated.
Additionally, he was subjected to a five-year sexual harm prevention order to limit his internet use, and a confiscation order was made for his devices.
The judge indicated that future offences would carry heavier penalties, especially considering the seriousness of the images involved.
