Paedophile phone salesman's image haul

Some of the material collected by mobile phone salesman Nicholas Guest was so shocking a recorder told Wolverhampton Crown Court the child involved would have been 'traumatised and even injured' by the actions taking place.

Pervert Guest began cataloguing the sickening images in September 2010, the court heard.

But following a tip-off police swooped on September 5 last year at the house in Darlaston where he had lived with his partner of eight years officers seized a computer and an iPad.

The 46-year-old was arrested at the same time at his workplace in Walsall, while a mobile phone was recovered from his car.

Mr Mark Rees, prosecuting, told the court all of the confiscated equipment contained images of children that were sexual in nature.

"These were serious images, including a moving film which he had stored on an iPad and copied onto another computer," he said.

"The defendant's partner co-operated fully with police and helped them to identify which machines he had been using."

Mr Rees said 291 of the images were category C, 15 were category B and three were category A – considered to be the most serious classification.

"There was also evidence that a number of images had been deleted and could only be accessed by specialist software," the prosecutor added.

The court was told Guest was interviewed by police twice after his arrest but refused to comment on either occasion.

Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said Guest's behaviour had resulted in the loss of his job and the breakdown of his relationship.

"He is slowly coming to understand how he got into the situation he did," said Mr Mann.

"A lack of thought went into his actions. He is thoroughly ashamed."

Recorder Oscar Del Fabbro told Guest: "Most worrying is the moving images you produced.

"I am satisfied the child involved would have been traumatised, even injured by the actions taking place.

"Yet still you have never fully explained why you had these images in your possession."

Guest, of Dorsett Road, Darlaston, pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing indecent images of children and two counts of making indecent images of children. He was not involved actually filming or photographing any of the images.

He was given a 36-month community order and placed under supervision for the same period.

He was also placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for five years and ordered to pay £340 costs.