Telford man admits possessing indecent images of children

Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that Roland Shaw, or Marions Hill, St Georges, Telford, had a relatively small number of images, compared to similar defendants, on a computer and a hard drive that were seized from his home as part of Operation Safenet.

The operation, run by Warwickshire, West Mercia, West Midlands and Staffordshire police forces saw a crackdown on people who view sexually explicit images of children and saw more than 500 investigations and over 350 people arrested across the region.

Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that on March 3, 2016, officers attended 66-year-old Shaw’s home as part of Operation Safenet, where his Samsung desktop computer and a hard drive were seized.

A number of images were found, including one moving image of Category A, the most serious level.

More images were later found during expert examination but were not included in the three charges put to Shaw of making indecent images of children.

Shaw pleaded guilty to all three charges.

Prosecuting, Ms Gemma Maxwell said in his police interview and initial statement Shaw had denied himself downloading the images, saying that if he had it would have been inadvertently through looking for films or music and that it was shared with other users.

She said: “He did delete the images and in terms of the one category of a moving image it is difficult to say whether it was viewed in full, to his credit.”

Mr Jason Pegg, for Shaw, said: “He faced the allegations at a late stage in life and felt genuinely ashamed.

"He suffers with ill health, emphysema and depression to name some.

“As such he is tied to his home by the use of oxygen every day.

“He became bored and began to look at adult pornography which led to the situation we are in today.”

Sentencing, Judge Jim Tindal said he had read a probation report written on Shaw which said he was of “low risk” of reoffending.

He said: “I am prepared to accept that you were first searching for music when you first came across images of children.”

Shaw was ordered to serve a community order for 12 months with a rehabilitation requirement for 20 days. He will also be subject to a five year sexual prevention order and will remain on the sex offenders register for five years.

Judge Tindal also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the images, and and ordered Shaw to pay a £500 contribution to court costs and a victim surcharge.