WHEN police examined a Coventry man’s computer they found a staggering 60,000 indecent images of children, some of them as young as 18 months and some in obvious pain and distress.
And a judge at Warwick Crown Court said that James Hewitson’s hoard included ‘every conceivable kind of disgusting and degrading photographs of the young.’
Hewitson (66) of Carlton Gardens, Warwick Avenue, Earlsdon, was jailed for 20 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.
The retired warehouseman had pleaded guilty to six charges of making indecent images of children, six of possessing indecent images of children, one of distributing them and one of possessing a prohibited image.
Prosecutor Siobhan Collins said that in March last year the police executed a search warrant at Hewitson’s home after they had intelligence that he was involved with child pornography.
His computer tower and an external hard drive were seized, and he was arrested and interviewed.
He claimed that while downloading other material he had been ‘exposed to’ child pornography, but that he had not searched for it or deliberately downloaded it.
But when his computer was examined by police experts they found, despite encryption software Hewitson had installed, more than 60,000 indecent images and movies of children.
And Miss Collins pointed out that, proving they were not there by accident, they had been saved by Hewitson in folders with various titles such as ‘schoolgirls’ and ‘Lolita desires’ and hidden using the encryption software.
There were 116 movies and more than 3,600 stills classed as being in category A – the most serious category – which Miss Collins said covers children subjected to penetrative sexual acts or activities involving animals or sadism.
There were 68 movies and more than 2,300 still in category B showing children involved in non-penetrative sex acts; and a staggering 56,600 category C still and 270 movies showing other indecent images of children.
And Hewitson had specifically searched for such images using searches such as ‘pre-teen’ and Lolita.
Miss Collins said some of the children in the images were as young as 18 months to two years old, and there were scenes where the children were clearly in pain and distress.
She explained that the distribution charge arose because Hewitson used a file-sharing site, and by downloading the images they became available to more people, rather than him actively distributing them.
Interviewed a second time and confronted with the police findings, he agreed he had deliberately downloaded files he had found using specific search terms.
Jailing Hewitson, Recorder Mainds told him: “I have listened to all that has been said on your behalf and have taken into account all I’ve read in the pre-sentence report and that, save for this, you have led a blameless life.
“But consider what one would view if one was standing there while these images were being made, with the pain and suffering and tears of the child involved.
“That is the seriousness of these offences, the fact that young children are abused and degraded.
“This kind of behaviour has a long-standing effect on them; and no doubt cases will come before these courts in the future of people whose lives have been ruined by such images being taken of them and viewed by people like you.”
