Man downloaded indecent images

More than a thousand indecent images were found on computers belonging to Matthew Fawcett, of Low Lane, Batley.

On Tuesday April 28, Judge James Spencer QC, sentencing Fawcett at Leeds Crown Court, said: “It seems to me you started this offending at a difficult time in your life and it seems it may not be entrenched in you.

“If you commit offences of this kind in the future you will go to prison.”

When interviewed by police last year, after the images were discovered, Fawcett, 42, said he did not view the images for sexual gratification.

Of the images found on Fawcett’s computers, 324 fell into Category A, the most serious, 341 in Category B and 661 in Category C.

Marlon Grossman, mitigating, said it was not clear which category the images shared on the internet fell into and possessions of the Category A images was the most serious aspect of his offending.

Fawcett admitted 21 counts of making indecent images and two counts of distributing indecent images at Kirklees Magistrates Court, on March 31.

He was given a five year sexual harm prevention order, a three year supervised community order, £60 victim surcharge and an confiscation order was imposed for the computers he used.