Man dumped memory sticks after laptop seized
A MAN caught with more than 1,000 indecent images of young children while at a caravan park threw memory sticks into the river after his laptop was seized.
Richard Higgins was staying at Towy Valley Caravan Park in Nantgaredig in March last year when he was visited by Dyfed-powys Police officers who inspected his Lenovo laptop.
A cursory look at its contents discovered internet history searches relating to ‘teen girls’, and a subsequent forensic examination found 1,294 indecent images of children on the device – 44 of which were category A – the most serious, 51 category B and 1,183 category C.
Swansea Crown Court heard although Higgins has no previous convictions, he had been made subject to a sexual risk order through civil proceedings at Worcester Magistrates’ Court in March 2018 following incidents of him being sexually inappropriate towards adult women.
Sex offender notification requirements apply as part of the order, with one of the conditions being that he had to make internet-enabled devices available for inspection to police.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told the court the images dated from June 20, 2020 to March 9, 2021, which at their worst depicted children as young as two.
Higgins had also visited numerous websites synonymous with hosting indecent images of children.
Upon interview at the police station following his later arrest, he admitted he had a problem, telling them: “There is a fair amount of images on there, I have a problem and couldn’t help myself from looking at them.
“It started with images of category C but then developed and I was looking at them seven days a week.”
The 53-year-old also told officers he had saved thousands of images onto memory sticks and thrown them into the river and in ditches after police seized his laptop.
Higgins, of Cheddar Bridge Park,
Draycott Road, Cheddar, Somerset, appeared at Swansea Crown Court for sentencing having previously admitted three counts of making indecent images of a child.
Mitigating, his solicitor, Ieuan Rees said: “He has in the past been a productive member of society, he has worked with homeless people, with people with a history of incarceration and been available to help people who have misused substances in the past.
“He is someone who undoubtedly can be a productive member of society when he turns his mind to it.
“He tells me as far as the future is concerned, he wants to ensure he is both physically and mentally well before he goes looking for any further employment and wants to overcome the problems he has when it comes to accessing images of this nature and behaving generally in an inappropriate manner.”
Sentencing Higgins, Judge Paul Thomas QC told him: “You need to understand that very young people of ages two and three are being physically and psychologically damaged and it will affect them for the rest of their lives.
“They will probably never recover from that experience. The reason it’s happening is people like you want to see images of it. These are very real, and very young, and very much suffering individuals. You threw some memory sticks in the river. It is likely what police were able to recover was the tip of a much larger iceberg.”
Higgins was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.
He must complete 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 150 hours’ unpaid work.
He also has to attend a rehabilitation programme for sexual offenders called Horizon. A deprivation order has been made concerning his laptop.