JACKSON SPIERS SPARED JAIL AFTER POLICE FIND INDECENT IMAGES
A TEENAGER has avoided an immediate custodial sentence after he was caught with over 300 indecent images of children – including one of a naked baby.Jackson Spiers, of Westgate Road, Barrow, was sentenced at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to three counts of making an indecent photograph / pseudo-photograph of a child and one offence of publishing an obscene article.
Lee Dacre, prosecuting, said the 18-year-old's offending came to the attention of Cumbria Police on December 6 last year.
He said an external law enforcement agency alerted officers to the defendant uploading indecent images of children to his Snapchat account.
“A warrant was executed at the defendant’s home address and his iPhone was seized,” Mr Dacre told the court.
“The device was sent for analysis and quite a large number of indecent images were recovered.
“There were 135 Category A images, 67 Category B images and a further 97 Category C images.
One of the Category A images involved a female child between the age of four and five.
Another Category C image was of a naked baby aged between four to six months old.
The court heard obscene communications on the defendant’s mobile phone were also recovered from a Discord communications thread.
Spiers was 17 years old at the time of the offences, the court was told.
In mitigation, defence solicitor Trystan Roberts said: “It is clear the remorse he has demonstrated is utterly genuine.
Maturity, curiosity and experimentation are all appropriate factors in this offending.
Neurodiversity can include curiosity.
“He has followed his bail conditions to the letter.
These are very serious offences but you can treat this as a very serious one off.
He has had to give up his work and knows these offences are going to affect his ability to work in the future.
He wants to learn from his mistakes and work with the authorities so this does not happen again.” Spiers fought back the tears as he was handed a 12-month sentence suspended for two years with requirements of completing 100 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation requirement days.
Magistrates said they were able to suspend the term due to believing the defendant had a ‘realistic prospect of rehabilitation.
They also imposed a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and notification requirements.
Court costs of £85 and a £187 victim surcharge were also sought.
