MAN BROUGHT BEFORE BOLTON CROWN COURT FOR CHILD IMAGES
A man was caught with more than 25,000 indecent images of children, some of them “as young as seven”.Mark Nicholson, 52, downloaded the images, that ranged across different categories, between July and June in 2023.
More than two years on Bolton Crown Court heard how police officers analysed the disturbing images after seizing Nicholson’s laptop.
Prosecutor Constance Halliwell said: “From that description is clear that the images included images of children as young as seven years old.” Ms Halliwell told the court how Nicholson was found with the images after child protection officers traced his IP address to his home on Worthington Street, Hindley.
She said in total he had downloaded 153 accessible “Category A” images, 259 accessible “Category B” images and 25,028 accessible “Category C” images.
Ms Halliwell said that Nicholson was also found to be in possession of a prohibited image of a child.
Brought before the courts Nicholson, who has 11 previous convictions for 19 offences, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
He also confessed to possession of a prohibited image of a child.
Olivia Belle, defending, said that Nicholson had earned credit for his guilty plea and pointed out that his previous convictions had not been for similar crimes.
She said that he had last been before the court 15 years ago and was now “deeply ashamed of his actions”.
Ms Belle said that Nicholson “maintains he did not get any sexual gratification” from looking at the images”.
But she said that since his arrest he had taken steps to address his behaviour, including his drug use.
Judge Abigail Hudson said that the “sheer number” of images, coming to a total of more than 25,000, made the case even more serious.
She said that Nicholson’s denial of getting sexual gratification was “frankly not usual for someone in your situation”.
She sentenced Nicholson to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, fined him £200 and ordered him to complete 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
She also made him subject to the sex offenders register and a sexual harm prevention order each for ten years.
