Dad hid his sick ‘obsession’ with vile child abuse
A ‘HAPPILY-MARRIED’ dad hid his obsession with child abuse from his family for seven years.
In 2014, Leon Levine, 62, of Beckfoot Road in Dewsbury, began searching the dark web for indecent images of children.
Levine quickly became ‘addicted’ and ‘obsessed’ and over seven years downloaded more than a million sick images showing children as young as four being raped.
Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that up until his arrest last year, the dad-of-one had downloaded around 540 images at category A – the most serious, and more than 34,000 at category C.
The court was told by Judge Jonathan Rose that police officers investigating eventually gave up categorising the images as there were too many.
Mitigating, Gerald Hendron said Levine cooperated with West Yorkshire Police straight away – even showing them the devices they needed to look through when they went to his home. He said: “He accepted full responsibility for them [the devices].
“He was interviewed before they were examined and admitted he had been obsessed with viewing this material. He expressed during his first interview his disgust and self-loathing and this material is disgusting and he started looking at indecent images and it had become an obsession and he was relieved he had been identified.”
The court heard Levine very soon began engaging with the Safer Lives programme – a probation service specialising in offenders who have looked at indecent images, engaged in illegal sexual communications and other sexual offences.
Judge Rose told Levine that he was described as ‘vulnerable’ and ‘ill-equipped to deal with custody’ but highlighted the case of a girl between the ages of four and sixyears-old who was raped and filmed. The image was one of those found on Levine’s devices.
The judge said: “That’s vulnerable, Mr Levine. That is the sort of imagery that you both viewed, enjoyed and caused to be distributed. Since your arrest you have sought intervention with the Safer Lives programme and that bodes well – but what a shame you have only done so in 2022.
“In 2014, when you were in a happy marriage and had a family and employment, and nothing to suggest that you would have a need for the sort of release that you engaged in, and you would do so for the next seven years without any attempt to stop yourself.
“The police stopped looking after around 100,000 [images] as it would have achieved very little to examine all one million or so images in order to categorise them. Those children were not willing volunteers. They did it because they were forced to do it because there are men like you that provide a market for this material. If there were not men like you, children wouldn’t be raped on camera. That is where your remorse should be directed to – not yourself.”
Levine was jailed for 20 months for one count of possession of indecent images of a child and three counts of making indecent images of a child. He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.