A defendant downloaded child pornography on a massive scale, the court was informed. Philip Coles, a paedophile from Lanlivery, near Bodmin, was apprehended after Devon and Cornwall Police obtained data from a peer-to-peer download service indicating that the 51-year-old was downloading thousands of indecent photos of children.
The activities was linked to Philip Coles, who was apprehended at his residence in October 2022. An examination of his electronic devices uncovered 1,326 category C indecent photographs of minors, including those as young as 10 and 14, along with 28,617 additional locked category C images.
However all images were categorised and stored on Philip Coles’ computer in files bearing names such as ‘jail bait’, ‘pre-teens’, ‘nymphets’ or ‘Lolita’ and, for the pictures police could access, they showed sexually explicit images seemingly posed by young children. Philip Coles pleaded guilty to two charges of possession to show or distribute indecent photographs of children and making indecent photographs of children when he appeared before magistrates’ court earlier this year.
Ryan Murray, defending, told a sentencing hearing at Truro Crown Court today, Friday October 4, that Philip Coles had been using the peer-to-peer website to download legal content and sometimes adult pornography and that, due to the sheer volume of images he was downloading, it was only when he unzipped the files that he realised he’d downloaded indecent images of children.
In mitigation, Mr Murray told the court that Philip Coles was not seeking images of children, adding that Philip Coles had previously been a man of good character and good work ethics who had been victim of a “slow desensitisation process” in terms of the images he had downloaded.
Sentencing Philip Coles to six months in prison, suspended for two years, His Honour Judge Simon Carr told Coles that he first needs to address his issue of having a sexual interest in children or he will continue to remain a risk to children.
He added: “You pleaded guilty to downloading category C images of children on an industrial scale. You don’t have 30,000 images of children if you don’t have a sexual interest in children. You need to address that.”
As well as suspended prison sentence, Philip Coles will have to carry out 30 days of rehabilitation requirement activity, 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,600 towards court costs. A five-year sexual harm prevention order has also been made against Philip Coles and he will be placed on the sex offenders register.
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