4:33pm Wednesday 20th August 2008
A DUDLEY butcher has been spared jail after he viewed indecent images of children sent to him by a man he met in an internet chatroom.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how Ian Wilson of Clifton Street was arrested when police in Bedfordshire picked up the other man and discovered there were links between them.
Mark Rees prosecuting said when Wilson, aged 44, was questioned by officers he told them he had seen the images but they were quickly deleted and not a single one had been retained.
The court heard how there were a total of 65 pornographic images of children and 13 were on the most serious level.
Wilson admitted 11 charges of making indecent images of children and he was made the subject of a three year supervision order.
He was further told he must register as a sex offender for five years and was barred from ever working with children.
Judge Michael Challinor told the defendant: “You were lead into this offending by your contact with another man in a chatroom and he sent you these images.”
He told Wilson he felt the best way to protect the public was for him to be under supervision and to attend the sex offenders’ treatment programme.
Darron Whitehead defending stressed to the court Wilson had not sought out the images on a website “They were viewed but not stored and they were not collected systematically.”
He said the offences were driven by “curiosity and stupidity” and concluded: “He feels real shame for looking at them – he knows he has been such an idiot.”
He said Wilson had learned a real lesson from his actions adding: “He is disgusted by what he has done and he has already been seeking voluntary counselling.”
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