A man who downloaded hundreds of vile images of child porn, including the rape of a baby, was spared jail in Manchester today.
Judge Lindsey Kushner who looked at a sample of the 1,400 images, before sentencing 51-year-old Andrew Townsend, said she could not bear to watch all the contents of one of the videos.
The video showed someone defecating on and then raping a 15-month-old baby.
Townsend, admitted 11 counts of downloading and sharing the pictures and videos after police raided his home at Boston Street, Manchester in April last year.
She told Townsend what he did was not a victimless crime.
“You must be aware the subjects of these images are not indifferent to what is happening to you,” she said in his sentencing at Manchester Crown Court.
“The public must be made aware of how infectious this material is.”
But Judge Kushner rejected the option of sending Townsend to prison and instead gave him a three year community order.
The court was told the rigorous programme, supervised by specialist probation officers, would not be available to him if he went to prison.
Judge Kushner said: “I’m not doing this because I’m frightened of sending someone to prison. This is a successful programme with proven results.
“It is not to get people through the system quicker or to save money.”
The court was told Townsend co-operated immediately with police when they seized computers, telling them where to find the images.
Judge Kushner described Townsend, who works in a bank, as a ‘quiet little man’ leading a humdrum life.
He was diagnosed with HIV in 2001, and after a period of depression became more and more reclusive.
He began downloading relatively mild child porn and then progressed to hardcore images, sharing them with other perverts.
His defence counsel said Townsend was relieved when he was discovered and was genuinely ashamed.
The court was told the likely 12 months he would spend in prison would mean he would not be able to get the help he needed to stop him re-offending.
Townsend is banned from unsupervised contact with under-16s and restrictions were placed on his use of the internet and computers.
Picture courtesy of Colin Smith, with thanks.
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