More than 200 child abuse images found on Northampton pervert's three computers

Andrew Anderson's collection included pictures of infants, Northampton Crown Court heard yesterday (Monday, January 20).

The 65-year-old, of Castle Avenue, Duston, was given a 24-month community order, put on the sex offenders' register for five years and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

Prosecutor Stephen Kemp told the court the defendant's home was raided by police on March 15, 2017, after receiving intelligence that indecent images of children were being downloaded there.

In total, 39 indecent images of children and 174 prohibited images were found on the three seized desktop computers, dating back to May 2012.

There were also peer-to-peer programmes found on the computers, which allow users to share content over the internet, but it was unclear if these had been used or not, the court heard.

Anderson's web history showed he had been searching for terms relating to indecent images of children and a program to wipe a hard drive's memory was also found.

The defendant denied owning any such pictures during the police interview, as well as having any sexual fantasies about children nor being attracted to minors.

However, Anderson pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing prohibited images of children at a hearing in December last year.

He was originally charged with possessing extreme pornographic images but that charge was dropped and he pleaded not guilty.

In his defence, Richard Purchase said he was full of shame and remorse and there has been no further offending since the raid almost three years ago.