Telford man, 27, spared jail in child sex images case

Loner Peter Swain told officers he had been effectively locked away in his bedroom for around five years at his parents' Telford home feeding an "addiction" to child porn.

The 27-year-old said he had downloaded thousands more images and clips on an old computer which he had since sold, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.

Unemployed Swain, of Castlecroft, Stirchley, had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to 16 charges of making indecent photographs of children and one offence of possessing indecent images.

He was spared jail by Judge Peter Barrie, who said it was not in the public interest to lock him up.

The judge instead imposed a three-year community order to include supervision by the probation service and participation in an intensive internet sex offender treatment programme.

Swain was also only asked to pay half of the court costs – £150 – because he did not have any income and was not claiming benefits because he did not want to engage with people.

Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said West Mercia Police raided Swain's home after receiving information from North Wales Police that a computer there was being used to share indecent images.

The prosecutor said police found 83 indecent pictures and 53 videos on the defendant's laptop. Eight of the pictures and 34 of the clips were at the most serious Category A, Mr Edwards said, and it was believed the children were aged "between three and 13".

Mr Edwards said that during police interviews Swain told officers said he had an addiction and had been "unable to stop".

"He said it was only wrong because society said it was wrong, and that he should have been born in a different time period," Mr Edwards told the court.

Mr Steven Scully, for Swain, said his client was a single man who had effectively shut himself off from the world after suffering "physical and psychological" bullying while at school.

"He sank into depression and started locking himself away in his bedroom," Mr Scully said.

"Initially out of boredom, he started looking at adult porn, and it was curiosity which led him on to looking at images of children. By his own admission, he became addicted and accessed such images for a period of around five years."

Judge Barrie, sentencing told Swain, said: "The public interest is far better served by trying everything possible to ensure this behaviour stops, rather than by sending you to prison."