Sick Tory had porn stash of babies and animals (From Dudley News)

Sick Tory had porn stash of babies and animals

1:10pm Wednesday 27th June 2012 in Local

A SHAMED former Tory councillor has been jailed for three years after confessing to possessing thousands of “graphic, sordid and damaging” pornographic images of children and animals.

Sick Robert Bate, of Moncrieffe Close, Dudley, had images of babies as young as six months organised into folders on his computer.

Judge Simon Davis described the images as “the worst I have ever seen”.

He told Bate, aged 62, who had pleaded guilty to 27 charges relating to the possession and distribution of the images at an earlier hearing: “ I am sorry, I have never said that before.

“I have never seen images as horrible, moving and dreadful as these.”

Bate was a councillor on Wycombe District Council, Bucks, until he quit last September and returned to the borough.

Sitting at Amersham Law Courts, the judge added: “It’s hard, if not impossible to fathom what possesses a man to have that material and do what you did with it and to intend to do what you did with it.

“You brought shame and extreme sadness to your wife and your only son.”

He said the fact the images had been put into folders was an “aggravating factor”.

Robert Spencer-Bernard, defending Bate, said: “The shame that he suffers and that he has suffered and the humiliation you can imagine – being elected one day and arrested a few days later.

“That and the consequent publicity which followed was very distressing for all who knew him.”

He added the fact that this had been hanging over Bate for 13 months had weighed heavily upon him.

He added: “He has hitherto not just of good character but positively exemplary character. He has been supported by his wife and it has been a long time healing.For very understandable reasons she’s chosen not to be here today.

“But they are reconciled to the extent that as and when they are able to live together he will be able to do so.”

The former Hazlemere Parish Council chairman was charged with 17 counts of making indecent photos of children – aged from six months to 16 years – four counts of possessing extreme pornography involving animals and four counts of distributing indecent images of children.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing to showor distribute indecent photographs of children, and a further count of encouraging the commission of an offence.