Telford paedophile who had underage sex cartoons and animal porn avoids jail

Thomas Cox-Gibson, aged 25, was found to have amassed a collection of almost 1,000 images on his devices over five years when police raided his mother's home.

Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that Cox-Gibson police seized a tower computer, a USB stick and an external hard drive. It was found that he had downloaded software to access the dark web, and had searched for indecent images of children.

Images found included adult men and women carrying out sex acts on children, cartoons of men sexually abusing children and a sex act between a child and a family dog.

The court was told that when Cox-Gibson was interviewed by police, he felt it was "a relief" to be caught so he could address the problem.

Cox-Gibson, of Purbeck Dale, Dawley, Telford, pleaded guilty to three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child, one of possessing an prohibited image of a child and one of possessing and extreme pornographic image portraying a sex act with an animal.

Mr Kevin Jones, defending, said that probation service reports suggest there is a "realistic prospect of rehabilitation" for Cox-Gibson.

Judge Anthony Lowe sentenced him to an 11-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He told Cox-Gibson: "These are real children who have had sexual abuse carried out on them. They are not computer-generated images.

"For whatever reason, you have a sexual interest in children. That is not going to go away. Probation will do what they can to give you strategies in dealing with that fact. The only person who can control the urges is you.

"Much like an alcoholic cannot take a sip of alcohol, you know if you turn on your computer, looking for these images, this is where you will end up."

Judge Lowe also ordered Cox-Gibson to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and 55 rehabilitation activity days. Cox-Gibson was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.