'˜Respected' tax advisor from Northants who distributed indecent images of children online avoids jail

An international tax advisor from Northamptonshire who distributed more than 100 indecent images of children online has been given a suspended prison sentence.
Stephen ColecloughStephen Coleclough
Stephen Coleclough

Stephen Coleclough, aged 54, was found to possess hundreds of indecent photographs after police seized his computer and a series of memory sticks after raiding his house in a village near Towcester, on March 25 last year.

Northampton Crown Court heard Coleclough had 138 images of category A, 93 category B and 149 category C.

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He also admitted distributing 106 indecent photographs of children and possessing 29 extreme pornographic images which portrayed, in an explicit and realistic way, an act of bestiality.

Caroline Bray, prosecuting, said some of the images involved children of a very young age that were at the “upper end” of category A.

Ms Bray said Coleclough was identified by police after an undercover officer in New Zealand passed on his IP address after he was sent an indecent image of a child via email.

The court heard Colecough used a Yahoo messenger account to send the indecent photographs and also had seven memory sticks containing the images.

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His Honour Judge Mayo said he had been impressed by the attempts Coleclough, who is a former president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, had made to reform himself since he was arrested.

Judge Mayo said had read a “moving” letter from his wife and knew how far he had fallen from his job as a respected international tax advisor.

He said: “It does not take me to tell you that the propogandisation and sharing online of these indecent images is a direct form of abuse as the children depicted in these images are being abused and the distribution of them fuels this abuse.”

Coleclough, of Tibbs Way, Bugbrooke, was sentenced to 14 months in prison, suspended for two years. He must also complete the Thames Valley sex offenders programmes as part of a 100-day rehabilitation order.

He must pay £1,500 costs and £100 victim surcharge. He will also be on the sex offenders register for at least 10 years