A MAN, who took his computer for repair with hundreds of filthy images of children on the hard drive, has been spared jail.
Computer repair shop staff in Haverhill became suspicious when Kim Bearstead kept pestering them to fix his laptop – and found the images on the hard-drive when they scanned it.
Bearstead, 55, of Orkney Close, Haverhill, had admitted 17 specimen charges, 16 of making indecent images of children aged under 16 and one of possessing such images, when he appeared at Bury St Edmunds Magistrates’ Court in July.
They ruled their powers of punishment were insufficient after being given descriptions of the images, involving girls aged from four to 11.
Although most were at the least serious Level 1 on the five-level Copine scale, others were up to Level 4, showing children involved in sexual activity with adults.
At Ipswich Crown Court, Bearstead was sentenced to a three-year community order including supervision and the requirement that he takes part in a sex offenders’ treatment programme.
He was also order to stay on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and ordered to pay £300 costs.
Kevin Lowson, prosecuting, had told magistrates the offences came to light in February when Bearstead, who had no previous convictions, took his laptop to be repaired at a shop in Haverhill.
Staff became suspicious when Bearstead constantly contacted them about the work. They found the indecent images, and contacted the police.
Mark Thompson, for Bearstead, said the charges related to samples taken from a total of 550 pictures found, some of them duplicates.
He said most of the images were at Level 1 and his client had only viewed them, not stored them or passed them on to others. He had not been involved in the making of the images, which were all stills.
