Man who viewed indecent images is spared prison

A man who viewed hundreds of indecent images of children at his home has been given a community sentence.

Eamonn Lloyd (47), of Percival Street, off Humberstone Road, Leicester, downloaded images of children aged between five and 15 but told police he had no sexual interest in children.

Leicester Crown Court heard Lloyd, of previous good character, started viewing adult pornography and then went on to view indecent images of children.

He admitted 10 counts of making indecent images and two of possessing extreme pornographic images on dates between May 19 and September 26, 2011. One extreme image was of a person performing an act of sexual intercourse with a snake.

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Victoria Rose, prosecuting, said two laptop computers were recovered when police searched Lloyd's home.

A total of 386 images were found on them.

The majority – 221 – were at the lowest level of seriousness, while 27 were at the next highest level and 58 were level three. But 77 were level four and three were at the most serious level of five.

Jackie Callan, mitigating, said Lloyd, now unemployed, previously worked as a grounds maintenance man.

She said he started looking at indecent images while he was at home alone.

"He found himself sitting at home," she said. "His wife was at work. His daughter, in her 20s, was out."

Ms Callan said her client did not view the images as being of real people.

"He is a very quiet, very shy man. He has been married for 20-plus years.

"He has lost his job. He has lost his self-esteem. He has spent most of his time on the computer."

Judge Sylvia De Bertodano sentenced Lloyd to a three-year community order, with requirements of supervision and to take part in a sex offender rehabilitation programme.

She told him the images were of real children and were created for a market "of people like you".

"If people did not want to see these images there would be no market for them," she said.

The judge made Lloyd subject to a sexual offences prevention order and told him to sign on the sex offender's register for five years.

"You are described as being naive, rather than dangerous," the judge said.

"You deleted all the images you looked at, rather than amassing a collection."