Child abuse images shame of West Yorkshire security worker


A pervert downloaded sickening images of children being sexually abused from his home in West Yorkshire.

A court heard Peter Hardaker also accessed footage of a horse being sexually abused during an eight-day period of offending.

West Yorkshire Police went to Hardaker’s home in Castleford on September 4, 2017, after receiving information that he had been accessing illegal material from the property.

Vincent Blake-Barnard, prosecuting, said Hardaker was not at home at the time and officers went to where he works in the security industry.
A tablet and other electrical devices were then recovered from his home and examined.

The prosecutor said Hardaker was found to have accessed five images on the tablet which were at category A – the most serious level of offending.

One category B image and one category C image were also recovered along with moving footage involving the horse.

Hardaker, 55, of Leaf Street, Castleford, pleaded guilty to three offences of making an indecent photograph of a child and one of possession of an extreme pornographic image.

Andrew Foley, mitigating, said married Hardaker has no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty to the offences at an early stage.

Mr Foley said Hardaker had committed the offences over a period of eight days and had not not accessed illegal images before or since.

He added that Hardaker had sought help to address his offending soon after his arrest and would benefit from continued support.

Hardaker was made the subject of a two-year community, during which he must take part in a 30-day rehabilitation programme.

Judge Tom Bayliss, QC, said: “You are before the court for offences of great seriousness.

“People like you who access child pornography encourage the sexual abuse of children.

“For whatever reason you were looking at them, You should hang your head in shame that you were fuelling that sort of behaviour for your own perverted sexual pleasure.”

Hardaker was told he must go on the sex offenders register for seven years.