A Yeovil man who decided to test how easy it was to look at child porn on the internet narrowly escaped being given a prison sentence when he was sentenced by magistrates.
Police investigators traced the illegal activity to Graham King’s home address and found the deleted material after examining several devices.
The 59-year-old former aircraft engineer, of West Coombe, pleaded guilty that between February 23, 2016 and June 23, 2016 at Yeovil he made three indecent images of children in the most serious category A.
He also admitted a similar offence in relation to one Category B image and two Category C images when he appeared before Somerset Magistrates at Yeovil.
At a previous court hearing prosecutor Emma Lenanton said that the defendant’s activities were traced in the usual way via his IP address.
“When checks were made King was identified as living at an address in Yeovil which had been involved in the downloading of indecent images of children,” she said.
“A warrant was executed by the police in October 2016 and a number of devices were seized and analysed and they found a total of six images.”
Defending solicitor Louise Eaves said that the death of King’s father was the trigger for his depression, which in turn was a big factor in these offences.
She said there had now been a massive shift in his attitude adding that although the Probation Service said he had tried to minimise the effect on the victims, he now acknowledged that they had been victims of sexual abuse.
“There has been a suggestion that he has not come to terms with his behaviour in terms of the effect on him, but he has to accept he went seeking out this material and says it was brought about by media coverage which has been extensive in the last few years,” she said.
“He heard how easy it was to download porn and this pricked his interest to see how easy it was to access.
“He is of previous entirely good character and has worked very hard in his life for 30 years in the aircraft industry and it is only in the last 10 years that he has been without work.”
She said that King found it difficult to socialise in the community and also had difficulty in engaging with professionals and asking for help, particularly with regard to his mental health.
She said he made full admissions to the police and did not seek to hide what he had done.