Pervert student admits possession of 3,000 child abuse images
A pervert student admitted he ‘needs to be fixed’ after being caught with more than 3,000 child abuse images and movies on his computer.
Zachary Roberts, 23, was described by the judge at Exeter Crown Court as an intelligent young man who had viewed ‘truly appalling’ images online.
He admitted six offences of possessing indecent images of children and four of making indecent images.
The offences relate to a four year period between 2011 and 2015.
Recorder Don Tait said: “If you didn’t appreciate the seriousness of your behaviour before police came to your home it’s quite clear you do appreciate the seriousness of it now.
“You are an intelligent young man. You have had some difficulties in the past and some of these remain but the type of images you were looking at was absolutely appalling.
“This sort of material is not victimless. Somewhere in the world young children are being abused and that abuse is being recorded and it will continue as long as people like you continue to view this material.”
The court was told Roberts, of Fore Street, Chudleigh, was a man of previous good character, who had trouble relating to people due to his condition and had previously had Tourette’s syndrome.
Felicity Payne, mitigating, said the defendant did not want to use this as an excuse.
He told police after they raided his home that he looked at the images as a way of ‘exploring his sexuality’ and was ‘trying to create himself without having to endure face to face contact with people’.
He had accessed a known paedophile website to view the images, the court was told.
In total around 3,000 indecent images and movies were found on two computer devices owned by the defendant, with 480 in the most serious category.
“He wants some help to sort out why he started doing this in the first place,” said Ms Payne.
He told a probation officer: “I need to be fixed.”
Recorder Tait said the only matter he had to decide was whether to suspend Roberts’ inevitable jail sentence.
“Potentially you have got a future as long as you don’t relapse into this sordid behaviour,” he said.
“In your particular circumstances I feel I’m just able to suspend your sentence for two years.”
Roberts was told to pay costs of £250 and a surcharge. He was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told to do a 60 day rehabilitation activity requirement to address his behaviour.
