Shropshire Star

Georgia Williams vicar calls for action over online porn

The vicar who led Georgia Williams' funeral service today called for action to tackle online pornography.

Published
Georgia WIlliams

The Reverend Mark Ireland, of All Saint's Church in Wellington, challenged the Government and internet businesses to do more to clamp down on online images of violence against women.

Mr Ireland also said that people of Wellington now need to "work and pray for the healing of our town".

Jamie Reynolds, 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday for Georgia's murder.

After his arrest, Reynolds was found to have stockpiled more than 16,800 images and 72 videos of extreme pornography. He had also written about 40 storylines where the predominant theme was fatal assault on a young woman who was killed with a rope and noose.

Mr Ireland has now called on authorities to do more to prevent people from accessing images like these.

In an open letter to his parish, Mr Ireland said: "As a community we need to challenge both the Government and the internet companies to do much more to clamp down on those things on the internet which encourage sexual violence against women, and all the more in today's world, where teenagers and even young children have continual internet access on their phones and in their bedrooms. And it is not just extreme pornography that is of concern – all pornography devalues and degrades, and contributes to an attitude of mind that sees women as objects."

Mr Ireland's comments come after Det Chief Insp Neil Jamieson, of West Mercia Police, said following the trial: "There is no doubt in my mind that his addiction to sadistic extreme pornography played a significant part in this investigation."

Following on from the trial earlier this week, Mr Ireland also paid tribute to the courage of Georgia's father, Stephen, during the difficult past few months.

Mr Ireland said: "He and his family have been thrust into the media spotlight at a time of such aching grief, but have always shown enormous dignity and strength, and have been so appreciative of the efforts and prayers of others."

Earlier this year, Prime Minister David Cameron hosted a summit to discuss what is being done to protect children from harmful material online and particularly, to block child abuse content. Since then, he has been working with Google and Microsoft to make changes to their search engines to block the accessibility of extreme images.

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