"YOUR HANDS ARE JUST AS DIRTY" - JUDGE SLAMS NORTHUMBERLAND MAN IN CHILD ABUSE IMAGE CASE
A Northumberland man who denied having hundreds of indecent images and videos of children has now been sentenced after a court heard the full scale of his offending.Robert Angus, now 31, was previously accused of possessing more than 240 indecent images and videos, including some of the most serious category A material.
The offences were said to have taken place over an extended period between 2015 and 2023 at his home in Eglingham, near Alnwick.
The case, initially heard at Newcastle Magistrates' Court, was sent to the Crown Court due to its severity.
During sentencing, the judge delivered a stark and uncompromising assessment of Angus' actions.
Addressing him directly, the judge said: "You are somebody who derives sexual gratification from looking at children...
being sexually abused, and images of people having sex with animals."' Rejecting any suggestion that simply viewing such material was less serious than producing it, the judge made clear the wider harm involved: 'It is no good for someone like you to say...
I did not create these images...
all I did was look at them.
Because if there was not a market...
then maybe those children would not have been sexually abused." He added: "Your hands, in my judgment, are just as dirty as the vile people who created these images in the first place!" The court heard Angus had viewed the material over a "significant period of time" and that there were a number of aggravating features, particularly relating to the most serious category A content.
Despite having no previous convictions, the judge stated he could not be considered a man of good character.
Angus was handed a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Additional concurrent sentences were imposed on other counts.
As part of the order, he must complete 40 rehabilitation activity days.
He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and placed on the sex offenders register for the same period.
The judge warned him of the consequences of any further offending or breach: "If you breach the requirements...
you commit an offence punishable with up to five years' imprisonment." The court also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of his electronic devices.
In closing, the judge issued a final warning about future behaviour: "If you do it again..
you are looking at a sentence in the region of three to four years."
