Man avoids prison after indecent images found on phone
A man from the Black Country has escaped prison after being found with pictures of abused children and breaching a court order banning him from having mobile phones.
Robert Challoner was banned from having mobile phones without informing police, but secretly kept a stash of seven hidden from officers.
He was also found to have searched online for sexual images that included content involving rape.
In a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on November 8, the 34-year-old, of Hill Street in Brierley Hill, was warned by the judge John Butterfield that he would face a harsher punishment if he broke the law again.
The court heard how Challoner had been handed a five-year sexual risk order by magistrates in 2019.
The court order, which is given to those posing a potential risk to the public but who have not been convicted or cautioned for offences, allowed police to carry out unannounced home visits.
Officers seized three phones from his home on August 3 last year, then another phone from a chance meeting on the street with police officers on November 18.
Challoner had also failed to disclose a phone hidden under his pillow three days later and, finally, two mobile phones containing indecent images were found under a pillow in January this year.
Investigations revealed explicit search terms on some of the devices and a total of 60 indecent images were discovered on seven mobile phones.
There were also 14 email accounts, three Twitter accounts and one Kick messaging account that Challoner failed to tell police about.
Accounts were set up in different names, while one Twitter account had a young girl as its profile picture.
Challoner was handed a two-year community order, with a 50-day rehabilitation activity requirement and 120 hours unpaid work, as well as a sexual harm prevention order.
He admitted five breaches of a sexual risk order and three counts of making indecent images of children between August 3 last year and January 17.
