GRANDAD JAILED FOR CHILD PORN COLLECTION
A man named John Alexander Smith, aged 53, was sentenced to jail for downloading child pornography from the Internet.The court was told that Smith had accumulated more than 7,000 indecent images of children when police raided his home in Chatham Avenue, Hartlepool.Smith, a grandfather, admitted to collecting these images over a period of five years.
After his arrest, he moved out of his home and relocated to Tennyson Avenue, Harrogate.Prosecutor Shaun Dodds stated that Smith told police, "Downloading child pornography was something that got out of hand."Smith’s defense lawyer, Adrian Strong, explained that Smith could relate to the children depicted in the images because he had been sexually abused as a child himself.
He added that the shame of his past had caused him to leave Hartlepool and face difficulties in his personal and professional life, including the distress caused by probation interviews which resurfaced old memories.Judge David Bryant highlighted that a significant aggravating factor was the fact that Smith’s computer system allowed other people to download the images.Smith pleaded guilty to 17 child pornography offenses committed between 1998 and the year prior to sentencing.
He was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.
Additionally, he was banned from working with children and from downloading sexual images for ten years.
His computer and related equipment were ordered to be destroyed.
