August 2010

Student avoids jail over images

A student from Street who admitted possessing more than 1,000 indecent images of children avoided jail when he appeared before the court this week.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC spoke out at the sentencing of Thomas Makin, who was found with 1,396 indecent images of children on his computer.

Makin, 21, had previously pleaded guilty at the same court to 15 charges of making pornographic images and one of possessing indecent images between December 30 2002, and February 23 last year.

Deni Mathews, prosecuting, said the sickening pictures, some of them in the most serious categories four and five, came to light in February 25, 2009, when Makin’s girlfriend went to use his computer and discovered the files.

She called the police and Makin was arrested at work, making a full admission.

Mr Mathews said the files were not encrypted and the images had been obtained from two suites where files could be exchanged.

The images were stored on three hard drives on a computer system more sophisticated than the average home PC, while some were on a laptop.

Makin was of previous good character and there was no evidence that he had passed the images on to others, said Mr Mathews.

Nick Lewin, for Makin, said his client must have had a sexual interest in children from the age of 14.

He had now failed two university courses, lost his girlfriend, lost his job and had no money.

Judge Gilbert told Makin, of Beech Road, Street, Somerset: “These are serious matters.

“Many people say this is a victimless crime, but it isn’t.

“A child had to be sexually abused to create the image, and if people didn’t watch such things, the offence would not be committed in the first place.”

Judge Gilbert said Makin’s offences would normally deserve jail, but he accepted that Makin was remorseful, had lost his reputation and the number of images was relatively small.

He imposed a community order with supervision by the Probation Service for three years, ordered him to complete the 60-day Thames Valley Group Work Programme and remain on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years.