IT expert held 100,000 child abuse photos – Jailed
A computer boffin who had almost 100,000 depraved image of child porn on his home computers allowed some to be shared with other internet users.
Obsessive Lee Adams was told by a crown court judge that the pictures and movies were ‘of the most depraved and perverted kind’ as he was jailed for two years.
Adams, 35, was caught after the Metropolitan Police were tipped off that someone known as ‘Nitpicker’ was using an internet file swapping service. An officer accessed the site and found movie and picture files which had names suggesting they contained child porn.
Mark Worsley, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that among the titles of the files were words like ‘pre-teen’ and ’10-year-old’.
After discovering that the user was Adams, police raided his home in Alpine Close, Shaw.
They found 13 desktop computers, three laptops, six hard drives and an assortment of other equipment. The computers were confiscated and contained 93,349 images and films of child pornography. Almost 60,000 of the images were stored on machines, while the others had left behind a footprint after being downloaded.
But when officers looked in the section of a program used to swap files over the internet they found more than 200 indecent images of children. These films and pictures were available to internet users.
After being arrested Adams was questioned and told police his main interests were Star Trek and the American sitcom Friends, but he also liked adult pornography.
The court heard that among the pornography were episodes of the TV shows for others to download.
Adams admitted 19 counts of possessing child porn in May last year but at first steadfastly denied a charge of distribution. He insisted he had not known others could download the material from him. But earlier this year he admitted to the charge.
Mr Worsley told the court Adams was an IT professional who worked for a computer manufacturer advising customers, and was a Microsoft certified engineer.
Claire Marlowe, defending, said there was little she could say about the offences. She said: “You will see from the psychiatric reports that Mr Adams is a 35-year-old lonely, isolated man with a problem.”
Miss Marlowe told the court the reports revealed a suicide attempt when Adams was 12, and later an attempt to set his house on fire.
Adams now lives with his parents and has not worked since leaving his last job after he was arrested.
Jailing him, Judge Charles Wade said he was thought of as being at risk of re-offending. He said: “It seems you have had an obsessive interest in this material over a number of years and used it to feed your sexual fantasies. This material is of the most depraved and perverted kind.”
As well as jailing him for two years he ordered Adams’ licence should be extended by three years when he is released. He also imposed a sexual offences prevention order banning him from going near children or using the internet to access chat rooms, exchange files or go to porn sites.
Adams must also register as a sex offender, forfeit his hard drives and is banned from working with children.
