Court

Changing Face of Child Sex Images Sicko
Thur 9th May 2013 , Yellow Advertiser

A CONVICTED sex offender who breached the terms of a court order less than two weeks after leaving prison has escaped a second jail term – even though indecent images of children were found on his computer.

Stephen Clark, 59, of Friern Gardens in Wickford, was jailed for 30 months in May 2011 after pleading guilty to downloading and sharing almost 5million images of child sex abuse.

Prosecutors described the haul as the second largest seizure of child abuse images in UK history.

Clark served 13 months of his prison sentence and was released in August 2012.

He appeared at Basildon Crown Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for breaching the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order just 13 days after his release.

Clark was released from prison on August 2, 2012. Police visited his address on August 15 and discovered that he had connected a computer to the internet.

The court order banned Clark from using the internet on any computer which could not be monitored by police.

Prosecutor Charles Langley told the court on Wednesday that indecent images had also been discovered on the computer – but the Crown Prosecution Service did not charge Clark over the images because they could not determine when he had downloaded them.

Clark was jailed in 2011 after pleading guilty to nine counts of downloading and sharing extreme pornography and child sex images.

The self-employed computer systems analyst traded the images using a 'very sophisticated computer set-up' and told cops he had collected the images for 20 years as a 'hobby'.

He told police: “It's a bit like collecting cigarette cards or snuff boxes or something like that.”

He was arrested in September 2009 after a German police investigation found his computer had accessed a website containing child abuse images.

Clark's three computers were still uploading and downloading illegal images when police arrived to arrest him.

Analysis of the computers found 4.6million illegal images.

The court heard on Wednesday that Clark continued to work as a computer analyst, charging £415 plus VAT a day for his services.

When prosecutor Mr Langley asked presiding judge John Lodge to order the destruction of Mr Clark's computer, defence barrister Howard Cohen launched a bid to allow the defendant to keep it.

Mr Cohen claimed that Clark had important work saved on the computer – a claim Mr Langley rebuffed.

Mr Langley said: “I don't know how much work there would have been. He had only been released for 13 days. There are indecent images of children on this computer and we are very anxious that they are destroyed as soon as possible.”

Judge Lodge sentenced Clark to a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year. He ordered Clark to pay £300 towards prosecution costs and said he would adjourn his decision on the computer for 28 days.

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