A POLICE delay in examining child porn photographs has led to a 43-year-old Kidderminster man being spared a jail sentence.
Recorder Christopher Donnellan QC said it was a “mammoth task” to analyse computer images because of limited resources.
He quashed a 22-week prison sentence imposed by Kidderminster magistrates on Andrew Taylor, of Chester Road North, for possession of indecent images of children.
Instead, he substituted a three-year community order with 150 hours of unpaid work at an appeal hearing atWorcester Crown Court.
Taylor must sign the sex offenders’ register for seven years and keep to the terms of a five-year sexual offences prevention order.
He was arrested at his home in February, 2008 and given his first three-year community order six months later, said David Swinnerton, prosecuting.
But 14 months after the sentence, police examined a disk from the same computer and found 23 more indecent images.
He pleaded gulity to possession and was given the prison term by the magistrates.
His barrister Adam Western said magistrates would have kept the original community order in place had they known all the facts.
He said the delay in completing the case was due to the workload of the police high-tech unit dealing with pornography.
