A 24-YEAR-OLD man who downloaded 130 images of child abuse has been jailed for 12 months.
The Royal Court heard yesterday that Dylan Little downloaded the pictures between May and August last year. Ten of them were deemed category A – the most serious.
Crown Advocate Chris Baglin, prosecuting, said the police went to Little’s home on 14 September and seized a computer and a mobile phone from his bedroom.
The phone was found to contain 95 images, including three from category A, while the computer contained 35, with seven from category A.
Little told the officers he had been curious, but denied a sexual interest in children.
Advocate Baglin said: ‘There is no evidence that they had been distributed.’
He said that Little had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to the charge of making indecent photographs of children, had co-operated with the police, and shown ‘some remorse’.
Advocate Baglin accepted that Little had an autistic spectrum disorder and struggled with anxiety and depression. But he said: ‘The offending was so serious that it must be met with a custodial sentence. Downloading these images fuels demand for this material, with the suffering that comes from it.’
He asked for 18 months in prison and said Little should be put on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.
Advocate Julia-Anne Dix, defending, argued against a prison sentence. She pointed out that there was no evidence that Little had downloaded pictures outside the May to August timeframe, nor that he had distributed any of them.
She said he had been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder eight years ago and added: ‘Mr Little was in a highly anxious state when he was interviewed without legal representation.’
She highlighted his early guilty plea and co-operation and the fact that he was at low risk of re-offending, and said: ‘The defendant denies having any sexual interest in children. In my submission, the motivation is very different from the cases that usually come before this court.’
Advocate Dix suggested a community-service order and a 15-month probation order, arguing: ‘Community service would meet the punishment aspect, with probation providing the rehabilitation aspect. A custodial sentence would do more harm than good.’
She suggested that Little be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years rather than seven.
The Jurats – Jerry Ramsden and Kim Averty – agreed to five years on the register but felt the offences merited a prison sentence. The Bailiff, Timothy Le Cocq, told Little: ‘These were not victimless crimes. They are crimes where real children were abused.’
