Ex-Panorama chief is spared jail over haul of child sex images
A FORMER BBC Panorama producer who downloaded hundreds of indecent images of children was spared jail yesterday after a judge said his reputation lay ‘in tatters’.
Victor Melleney, 76, who also worked on the corporation’s Question Time show, harboured an ‘addiction’ to legal pornography at his multi-millionpound portfolio of properties in London and Sussex.
However, he also downloaded more than 800 indecent images of children, some as young as two, including videos totalling 104 hours in length, claiming he had done so ‘accidentally’.
When Melleney was arrested at his home in Kensington, west London, after officers from the National Crime Agency tracked his computer activity, a hard drive containing most of the offending material was found in his dressing gown pocket.
Officers searched his properties in nearby Holland Park and West Wittering, Sussex, as well as his Porsche, and found illegal firearms including three tasers and pepper spray he had bought for ‘selfdefence’. Melleney admitted downloading legal adult pornography but said he had no sexual interest in children.
He was acquitted by a jury of intentionally downloading the child sex abuse images but convicted of possessing indecent images after the court heard he was aware the content was on his devices.
He also pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing a prohibited weapon relating to the firearms, which were said to have been bought abroad when he was in a ‘rough area’.
Sentencing Melleney to 22 months in prison, suspended for two years, at Kingston Crown Court yesterday, Mr Justice Bryan said immediate custody would be ‘particularly challenging’ because of his age, heart problems and susceptibility to coronavirus.
‘Your reputation is in tatters,’ he said. ‘There has been a considerable impact upon you and your personal life and you will have to live with the disgrace and ignominy you have brought upon yourself.’
Twice-married Melleney, who held an ‘unblemished record’ over 30 years with the BBC, said his porn addiction began in the late 1990s when his two children were at school and his wife was away.
But he told jurors: ‘No, no sexual interest in children at all. Horrible.’ Keiran Vaughan QC, on behalf of Melleney, said he had ‘lost everything dear to him.’
The court heard he had stored 832 indecent images of children across his devices between May 2011 and his arrest in October 2018.
Melleney was handed a rehabilitation activity requirement of 40 days and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.
‘Lost everything dear to him’