Man possessed hundreds of indecent pics

AMAN who downloaded hundreds of ‘extraordinarily unpleasant’ indecent videos and pictures of children has avoided jail.

Police raided Danny Kershaw’s home in Crawshawbooth and found links to the pornography on a television screen which was attached to a computer at the end of his bed.

Officers seized a laptop, external hard drive and a mobile phone and found a total of 663 images including 144 category A - the most serious - 159 category B and 360 category C.

Burnley Crown Court heard how the victims were from countries ‘around the world’ including Japan, Vietnam and Greece.

Kershaw, 23, of Hawthorne Meadows, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing them.

He was given a 16-month jail sentence, suspended for two years with supervision and a 60-day internet sex offender treatment programme requirement.

He was also given a sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the sex offenders registers, both for ten years.

William Baker, prosecuting, told the court how officers executed a warrant at his home in August last year and found a computer connected to a television in his bedroom showing file names ‘indicative of containing indecent images of children’.

When interviewed by police Kershaw admitted typing in specific search terms but ‘denied knowing what they meant’.

The court heard how he searched for the pornography on nine separate occasions over a fourand-a-half-year period and deleted it after he watched it.

Ken Hind, defending, said the defendant ‘deeply regrets being involved in this’.

He told the court: “There are nine separate occasions but they are very widely spread and quite a big gap.

“For a period of time he formed a normal relationship with a young lady and they went out for some period of time.

“Then it would appear in May to August 2015, after the relationship had ended, he would’ve appeared to return to downloading these images. There’s genuine remorse in his case.

“He admitted it fully to police and explained how it was done and some of the IT methods that were used.”

Judge Beverley Lunt said the videos and images are ‘extraordinarily unpleasant’ involving young children from ‘around the world’.