A Richmond man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after he admitted downloading indecent images of children.
Ken Jones, 56, of Beechfield Road, used internet search terms such as ‘jail bait’ and ‘pre-teen’ and downloaded ten indecent images of minors, York magistrates heard.
Police swooped on his home in October 2022 and seized devices, including mobile phones and laptops.
Prosecutor Diane Rowley said that forensic officers found ten Category C images of children on one of the laptops.
Jones was charged with making indecent images and admitted the offence. He appeared for sentence today.
His solicitor Brian Nuttney said that Jones had never been in trouble before.
He said although Jones was detected and arrested in 2022, the images were downloaded between 2011 and 2013.
He added that Jones had endured a traumatic childhood but had been a hard worker all his life and still worked full-time.
He said that Jones had lived “quite a solitary and lonely life”.
Magistrates gave Jones a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work.
He was ordered to sign on the sex offenders’ register for five years and made subject to a five-year sexual harm prevention order to curb his online activities.
He was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £114 victim surcharge.
