Tipton man with child porn spared jail so he can receive treatment

The 40 indecent images of children found on the computer of John Harrison included four of the worst kind, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The discovery was made in a police swoop following a tip off in August 2013 but the case had been delayed by the long backlog of images to be examined by police experts due to a shortage of resources, it was said.

Harrison, from Geneva Road, Tipton, who was of previous good character, had admitted having fantasies about children, said Mr David Lees, prosecuting.

The defendant admitted two charges of downloading indecent images of children between December 2004 and August 2013.

Harrison was given a three-year community order which will involve him completing the community sex offender group programme.

He was also put on the sex offender register for five years and told to pay £350 costs.

Judge Robin Onions told him efforts would be made to rehabilitate him.

"You could not complain if you received a short custodial sentence which would probably be counted in months. No rehabilitative work is done in prison and you would come out as you went in with your beliefs unchallenged," Judge Onions told him.

"The community sex offender programme takes three years to complete and has a good record of making people confront what they have done.

"Whilst punishment is important, protection of the public is even more so and I believe they will be better protected by this community punishment."

Judge Onions concluded: "The number of images involved was very low when compared with other cases of this kind, you were of good character and it is a matter of regret that it took so long for the computer hard drive to be examined, although that is not through any fault of the police. It is the result of a lack of resources."