FORMER NAVY MAN JOHN SHILL OF SOUTH WITHAM ESCAPES JAIL AFTER DOWLOADING CHILD PORN IMAGES IN LINCOLN

In July 2012, a former Royal Navy serviceman, John Shill of South Witham, was spared a prison sentence at Lincoln Crown Court after admitting to downloading numerous child exploitation images.

The investigation began in October 2010 when police, prompted by a tip-off, raided Shill’s residence. During the search, officers seized a computer memory stick that contained 2,973 indecent images of children. An additional 181 such images were found on a laptop.

The images depicted girls as young as 10 years old. Prosecutor Sarah Lloyd stated, "The images featured girls as young as 10. All but 10 of the images were in the two least serious categories."

Shill, aged 50 and living at Manor Court, South Witham, admitted to four charges of making indecent images of a child and two charges of possession of indecent images on October 1, 2010.

During his interview, he confessed to downloading and saving the images. He claimed, “He said he had not found the images sexual but thought the girls looked pretty. He accepted that he knew what he was doing was illegal.”

The court heard that the images were categorized in terms of severity, with only 10 images deemed more serious. Judge Peter Clark remarked, “It gives me no pleasure to see you here. You had a distinguished career in the Navy and you are a grandparent.”

Shill was sentenced to a community order with three years of supervision and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

Mark Watson, acting as Shill’s defense, highlighted his service record, stating, “Shill spent 19 years in the Navy serving in both the Falklands War and in the Gulf conflict. He had no previous convictions.”