The Chronicle

Man found with child sex images

VILE PICTURES OF TODDLERS DISCOVERED ON HIS PHONE

- By SARA NICHOL Reporter sara.nichol@trinitymir­ror.com @SaraNichol­10

A MAN was found with a secret stash of sick images of children, with some showing toddlers as young as two.

Police discovered the vile hoard of pictures on Simon Chambers’ mobile phone when they raided his South Shields home in December last year.

The 49-year-old initially claimed he’d downloaded the sickening content by mistake but subsequent­ly pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

South Tyneside Magistrate­s’ Court was told that, in total, Chambers had 21 category A pictures, which are the most serious kind and involve penetrativ­e sexual activity, 33 category B and 46 category C.

Lorna Rimell, prosecutin­g, said the ages of the children in the photos varied between two and seven.

She said: “It’s the Crown’s case that this should be committed to the crown court for sentence.

“Police raided the defendant’s home and found, on his phone, 21 category A images, 33 category B and 46 category C.

“The ages of the children are between two and seven years old.

The defendant initially said that he had downloaded the images by accident as they were different to what he had expected and deleted them.

“He said that this happened six times but there’s more than 100 images downloaded on his phone, which nobody else has access to.”

The court heard that the pictures were obtained by Chambers, of Stanhope Road, South Shields, over 12 months between January and December 2017.

Joanne Gatens, defending, made no representa­tions at this stage.

Magistrate­s deemed that their sentencing powers were insufficie­nt and released Chambers on unconditio­nal bail to next appear at Newcastle Crown Court for sentence on October 16.

 ??  ?? Simon Chambers
Simon Chambers

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