Police acting on intelligence visited a Bath man. And it transpired Christopher Parker had downloaded and filed indecent images of children via the dark web.
Parker, 69, of George Street, accepted he had sought out 'women under 45'. He went on to plead guilty to three charges of making an indecent image of a child and appeared at Bristol Crown Court for sentence yesterday (August 4, 2022).
Judge Mark Horton handed him a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years. He told Parker: "Despite evidence you still feel unable to admit that you are and have been sexually attracted to young children."
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The judge imposed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order allowing monitoring of his internet use. He also ordered Parker to register his whereabouts to police for 10 years, undergo 40 hours' rehabilitation and pay prosecution costs. His laptop computer was forfeited.
Jack Barry, prosecuting, told the court an investigation of four email addresses linked to Parker revealed he downloaded indecent images of youngsters between January 25 and April 20 last year. Mr Barry said, of 46 accessible images, two were deemed to be in highest concern category A, one in B and 43 in C.
The court heard a small number of inaccessible images were also detected in each category. They depicted degrading sexual abuse of children aged as young as two.
Parker told police he did search for images and videos of women aged in their teens to under-45. But he denied gaining sexual pleasure from viewing images of young children.
Mr Barry said the offending was aggravated by the age of the victims concerned, their vulnerability and discernible pain and distress caused to them. He also cited Parker's attempt to conceal his illicit activities as an aggravating feature.
Nathaniel Wade, defending, told the court: "He accepts everything. I want to say how sorry he is, from a place of increasing understanding and real remorse."
Mr Wade said his client was an intelligent man who had a willingness for rehabilitation. He conceded there was work to do but urged for a sentence which could be suspended.
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