UWE WENIGER OF MACCLESFIELD FACES JAIL FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

In March 2005, Uwe Dieter Weniger, a 44-year-old care assistant from Macclesfield, was charged with possessing and downloading extreme child pornography. A court heard that Weniger stored over 1,000 pornographic images and videos of girls aged mainly between 11 and 14 on his home computer on Hurdsfield Road.

The images included mostly low-level material, such as naked or semi-naked girls in provocative poses, some believed to depict prepubescent children. However, police also identified a minority of more serious images, including one classified as level-five, which could involve sadism and bestiality. Among the images was one described as revolting — showing a young girl being raped by an adult man.

Weniger admitted to 18 charges related to possessing indecent photographs and pseudo-photographs. Magistrates were told he faced the possibility of jail pending a probation report. Prosecutor Matthew Kerruish-Jones stated that Weniger, who works as a care assistant in elderly homes, had downloaded these images from the internet onto his personal computer. A police raid in July last year confirmed he was the only user of his computer, with no evidence of sharing or selling the images.

During police interviews, Weniger claimed that he was mainly interested in images of girls aged 14 and above. Although he admitted to downloading images of younger girls, he said he had deleted them. Court descriptions noted that most images showed girls alone in provocative poses both indoors and outdoors. Some images depicted girls aged around 11 or 12 engaging in sexual acts with adult men, and another showed a girl of about 12 or 13 being raped.

Defense lawyer Sergey Prokofiev acknowledged Weniger's admission of guilt, stating, “The defendant admitted these offences the day he was arrested. He has not hidden anything. Yes, he’s into porn. Yes, he has it on his computer. These are revolting images but they are mostly of a level-one class, meaning there’s a low degree of exploitation and abuse. He downloaded these but did not produce, exchange, or sell them. The images were for personal use only and not for commercial gain.”

Prokofiev argued that sending Weniger to prison would ruin his future prospects. He explained that Weniger had plans to attend nursing school and further his qualifications, plans now likely jeopardized by his punishment. Magistrates’ chair Brenda Pragnell warned the defendant that they were considering all sentencing options, and told him, “There were at least five images above level-one, and you will have to sign the sex offenders’ register.” The length of his registration period could depend on his sentencing outcome.