Indecent images man is spared jail
A Scarborough businessman has been spared jail despite downloading 11,000 indecent images of children, including some as young as six.
A Scarborough businessman has been spared jail despite downloading more than 11,000 indecent images of children and now members of the public have referred the case to the Attorney General to get the sentence increased. Terence Patrick Corcoran, 48, scoured the web for depraved shots of children as young as six.
Corcoran, a former director of a financial-services company, downloaded 11,236 images, York Crown Court heard.
The businessman was arrested after police raided his home.
They found thousands of “live” images and others which had been deleted by the disgraced financial expert.
He admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and appeared for sentence on Friday. Corcoran, of Heron Lane, Crossgates, sat with his head bowed in the dock for much of the hearing.
Prosecutor Rob Galley said the majority of indecent images were rated Category C - the least serious - but police also found 235 Category A images, featuring the worst kind of images..
There were a further 140 images rated Category B. The offensive material was downloaded between May 2011 and December 2012.
Police swooped on Corcoran’s home in May 2014 after suspicious internet activity had been traced to his computers. Corcoran admitted downloading a “vast amount” of child pornography but claimed it wasn’t deliberate and that he hadn’t actively searched for vile material. He told officers he had been on morphine at the time following a series of serious health scares.
Mr Galley said Corcoran may have stored other “inappropriate” images on an external drive which had never been recovered.
He said Corcoran had deliberately searched for the images and installed “easy-hide” software to browse the web anonymously.
The businessman used extremely graphic searched terms. The barrister said the age children featured in the photos and video clips ranged from six to 14.
Corcoran’s barrister Silis Reid said the businessman had serious,geneticheartproblems at the time and underwent 11 operations, including openheart surgery, between 2010 and 2014.
He said Corcoran was convinced he was going to die during this period but managed to run a “very-successful” financial-services business which he had been forced to abandon.
He added that Corcoran, who has no previous convictions, was “everything one would want a member of society to be” before his offending and had done charity work.
Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said there were “plain indications” that Corcoran had deliberately sought out sexual images of children in “visible pain”.
Corcoran was given a fourmonth prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to sign on the sexoffenders’ register for seven years.
Mr Stubbs also made a sexual-harm prevention order which includes internet strictures.
Following an outcry online Scarborough News readers have referred the sentence to be reviewed.