A MAN who had a “harrowing” upbringing has been spared jail after indecent images of children – some as young as two – were found on his phone.
Axel Jurandir Fek (27) was sentenced to community service, having admitted three counts of making indecent images of children.
Crown Advocate Lauren Taylor, prosecuting, said the 53 images – which were sent to him unrequested but which he didn’t report – included some of children as young as two and included 44 videos. They were of class A, B and C.
Fek had been a member of Telegram channels for legal pornography and was sent the images that way, Advocate Julia-Anne Dix, defending, said.
He hadn’t asked for the images and he hadn’t shared them further, but he hadn’t reported them, either.
Advocate Dix described a “traumatic” upbringing in Brazil.
“This court, particularly when dealing with cases of this nature, do hear some very difficult stories of defendants’ upbringing. But in this case, Mr Fek’s upbringing is particularly harrowing,” she said.
Fek was exposed to explicit materials at a young age and had been abused as a child, the advocate said. His mother was a sex worker.
Having entered the Telegram channels, she explained, Fek suffered from the ‘Coolidge effect’, where pornography users discover they aren’t aroused by material anymore and seek out “more risqué” images.
Probation officers had “unusually” recommended Fek for a probation order, Advocate Dix said.
“Risk [of reconviction] could be reduced if he was to meaningfully engage in treatment, and that is something Mr Fek is willing to do,” she added.
It was recommended he follow a number of probation service courses, some of which cannot be delivered in prison. Among them was the ‘Stop It Now’ programme offered by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which works to prevent child sexual abuse.
Fek’s devices will have to be registered with the police and it will have to be able to access his internet history, among other conditions.
Fek had references from a number of members of the community and from former partners, who spoke highly of him, she said.
“Axel is profoundly loved and cared for by his family, his children, his ex-partners and by me,” his wife wrote to the court, adding that she was “committed” to supporting him .
Fek had already served time remanded in custody, from when he admitted the offences to the day of his sentencing.
53 images is considered a low number for indecent images cases, where defendants can accumulate hundreds or thousands of pictures.
Deputy Bailiff Mark Temple, presiding, said the court had “exceptionally” been persuaded to should make a non-custodial order.
“The court in this case has given consideration to the defendant’s background and growing up in which effectively, the defendant has been normalised to sexual behaviour from an extremely young age,” he said.
He sentenced Fek to 312 hours of community service for the category A images, 200 hours for the category B images, and 100 hours for the category C images, running concurrently. This was the equivalent to two years’ imprisonment.
Mr Temple was presiding with Jurats Elizabeth Anne Dulake and Donald Christopher Gardener.
