Paedophile hater was caught with images of child abuse

A DERBYSHIRE pensioner who said he “felt hatred” for paedophiles was downloading images of children being sexually abused.

Fred Tomlin, 67, put his crimes down to “old age and stupidity” after being questioned by police.

Jailing him for nine months, which was suspended for two years, Recorder Paul Mann QC said: “During 2019 you ...downloaded indecent images of children. What aggravates this is that some of the children were aged so young.

“You support a 91-year-old mother, you are not in the best of health and an immediate prison sentence would be far harder on someone like you than it would be for a younger and fitter person.”

Andrea Lock, prosecuting, said police went to Tomlin’s Boyer Street address, in Derby, in September 2019 after receiving information his internet address was linked to downloading child abuse images. They seized six devices and on one of them discovered the images – seven of the most serious category A, 13 category B and two category C. Miss Lock said: “He said his son knew his passwords and did use his computer to access the internet. He accepted on occasion he viewed adult pornography to address the state of his erectile dysfunction, but said he never looked at child images.

“In his own words he told the police he ‘felt hatred for those sort of people’ and that they ‘deserved everything they got.’”

Miss Lock said in a second interview Tomlin admitted to using child abuse search terms saying it was “down to curiosity, stupidity and old age” that he did so and that he “wanted to see what paedophiles looked at”.

She said: “He said he’d had a stroke in 2019 that caused him to struggle to recall certain events.”

Tomlin admitted three counts of possession of indecent images of children. He has no previous convictions.

Esther Harrison, mitigating, said her client was ashamed and embarrassed.

She said: “He recognises what he did was wrong and wishes to apologise to the court. He has a limited social circle, does not see his family and has elderly parents.”

As part of the suspended sentence, Tomlin must undertake 30 rehabilitation sessions with the probation service. He was also handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offender register for 10 years.