Man who downloaded thousands of child-porn images avoids custodial sentence

POLICE discovered more than 1,000 indecent images of children after they seized computer equipment from a man's home.
Leeds Crown CourtLeeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court

Officers executed a search warrant at Stuart Bolton’s property on Portland Place, Upton, near Pontefract, on February 23 last year.

Leeds Crown Court heard 79 of the images were at category A - the most serious level of offending.

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Stephanie Hollis, prosecuting, said Bolton had accessed the illegal images between 2011 and 2016.

The prosecutor said there was evidence that around 2,500 other images had been deleted.

Bolton, 62, was arrested and interviewed about the offending. He claimed he did not have any sexual interest in the images and was trying to compile a report for police about people who were responsible for making the images.

Miss Hollis said Bolton had never written a report or contacted police.

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He pleaded guilty to three offences of possession of indecent images of children.

Mark McKone, mitigating, said Bolton was prepared to receive help to prevent him accessing the images in the future.

Mr McKone said Bolton was wheelchair-bound due to a spinal condition and would struggle to cope in custody.

Bolton was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to take part in a 20-day rehabilitation programme.

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