Shropshire man, 35, spared prison over child porn

Colin Rees, 35, narrowly avoided custody at Shrewsbury Crown Court, instead being given a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years.

However, he will be put on the sex offenders' register and barred from working with children and young adults, and was also ordered to do 35 days rehabilitation and 300 hours unpaid work.

Rees, 35, formerly of John Street, Shrewsbury, but now living in Birchwood Close, Arleston, Telford, was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children, ranging from the most serious Category A to Category C, and three counts of distributing images in the same categories.

He was also charged with possession of indecent images of children and extreme pornographic images involving animals.

Benjamin Lawrence, prosecuting, said the distribution was the more serious offence as "making" did not mean production, but rather downloading of both still and moving images.

He said these offences came to light after a check of an "IP" address registered at Rees's home.

"Police attended on February 25 to execute a search warrant," he said.

He said Rees immediately admitted to police that he possessed the images and even showed officers his laptop where they were kept. He then immediately had a conversation with his wife where he admitted having the images and told her he "had a problem", Mr Lawrence said.

He said Rees had started by looking at normal adult pornography sites and got talking to other users and they started to share images.

Rees shared images via "fairly unsophisticated" methods such as on Yahoo's photo sharing facility and Skype, he said.

Paul Smith, defending, said: "He accepts fully what he has done and accepts fully that there are consequences."

He said Rees had already put himself on a sex offenders' course and family members were working to ensure he would never re-offend.

"If there is any step again down this road, it will be spotted," he said.

Judge Jim Tindal said: "Every image you have looked at, every image you have shared is a childhood destroyed somewhere around the world. But it is not everyone who finds themselves in the position of being so pro-active in trying to make things right when they come to court."