Febuary 2004

Father’s child porn shame

A FATHER-of-three who stored 184 images of child pornography in a computer file called “kiddoes” has been sentenced to five months in prison.

Christopher Sheppard, of Broadfield Gardens, Warndon, last month admitted 13 separate charges – 12 of making or downloading the images and one of possession.

District Judge Bruce Morgan spoke of the “public revulsion” for Sheppard’s acts as he sentenced him atWorcester Magistrates Court yesterday.

“What I find most distressing about this case is that you are a father yourself,” he said.

“I wonder what you would think if your children were subjected to the kinds of acts that these children were.

“Childhood only comes around once and it should be a happy time but, because of people like you, children are obtained and subjected to vile sexual practices just to satisfy a demand.”

The images were discovered on two computers at Sheppard’s Worcester home during a police raid in November 2002.

The pictures included 129 at level one – the least graphic – as well as six at level two, 48 at level three and one image at level four – the second highest classification.

Susan Cliff, prosecuting, said Sheppard initially claimed he was only interested in teen and adult pornography.

“Once the images were found, he was re-interviewed and admitted accessing the sites out of curiosity,” she said.

“He later agreed the images were not of teens.”

In mitigation, Brian O’Connell said his 28-year-old client was of previous good character, had made no attempt to supply the images to anyone else and kept them well away from his children.

“He has had this hanging over his head since November 2002 and it’s important to remember there is only one image at level four,” said Mr O’Connell.

“He spends an hour a day looking at pornography and child images are a very little part of it.

“The 184 images have to be looked at in the context of the thousands of other pictures on the computers – they are only a very minor proportion of them.”

He added that Sheppard had now resigned from his job and put his house up for sale to make a fresh start elsewhere.

Judge Morgan said he could not ignore “public revulsion at children being violated” in sentencing him to five months in prison.

He also ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register.