Man faces jail over his sickening collection of child abuse images
A man faces jail after being caught with a sickening stash of child abuse images at his Sunderland home.
Among Stephen Collier’s vile collection was an image of a youngster aged around one and others who detectives say are in visible distress.
Collier, 56, of North Hylton Road, Southwick, was caught when officers from Northumbria Police’s specialist Paedophile Online Investigations Team raided his property.
Forensic searches of his digital devices revealed 121 images,including32athighest levelcategoryA,magistratesin South Tyneside heard.
There were also 49 at category B and 40 at category C, prosecutor John Graham revealed.
He said the starting point for possession of category A images was 12 months behind bars and six months for category B.
Mr Graham said: “Officers from Polit, Northumbria Police’s Paedophile Online Investigations Team, attended his home.
“They were in possession of a warrant issued by North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.
“The warrant was executed,andhishousewassearched, andanumberofdigitalimages were recovered.
“Thepoliceevidenceisthat there is very visible distress to some of the children.
“There is also a child that police say is one year of age.
“Looking at category A, the
starting point is 12 months but there’s also category B which has a starting point of six
months.”
David Forrester, defending, said: “He has no previous convictions or cautions. His account is slightly different than that of the prosecution.
Hegivesavoluntarystatement.
“He says that he was using some software called Torrent, which is a pornographic site where downloads are dumped on to a computer.
“He says that he realised thatsomewereofchildrenand he tried to delete them.
“Nevertheless, the downloadhastakenplaceandhehas to be dealt with.”
Collier pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, betweenJuly1,2006,andApril 8 of this year.
Magistrates told him his crimes were so serious their sentencing powers were insufficient,andhemustbedealt with at crown court.
He will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday, May 28.