STEPHEN RAWLINSON

FATHER AND SON BOTH HAD CHILD ABUSE IMAGES AT SAME HOUSE

A father who created child abuse images on his computer has been jailed after his son found them and posted them to an internet friend.

Stephen Rawlinson, aged 55, used photo manipulation software to turn innocent images of children into indecent ones and was found with 139 on his Dell computer.

The police raided their house in September 2017, and he admitted manipulating images of children to make them sexual.

He was jailed for eight months.

His son William, aged 27, also had an interest in child abuse images; he downloaded more than 2,000 from the internet, put some of his father's images on a USB memory stick, and sent 22 images to a contact on Kik shortly before the police raid.

Both men admitted three counts of making indecent images of children; Stephen Rawlinson was also on a previous conviction for downloading such images and was jailed at Exeter Crown Court.

His son was sent on a sex offenders' treatment programme as part of a community order.

They are now on the sex offenders register and subject to Sexual Harm Prevention Orders, restricting their future internet use, under Judge Peter Johnson.