A COVENTRY man has been jailed for downloading indecent images of children as young as two being sexually abused – just three weeks after completing his university degree course.
Wayne Knight also had a stash of Japanese anime comics containing indecent cartoon depictions of children.
Knight (30) of Morton Close, Keresley, Coventry, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to six charges of making indecent images of children and one of possessing prohibited images.
He was jailed for 15 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years after Judge Stephen Eyre QC told him: “Given the number of images, I cannot suspend the sentence.”
Prosecutor Amy Jackson said that in September last year the police became aware of indecent images of children being accessed from a computer at Knight’s home.
Officers went to the house and arrested Knight and seized computer equipment, his phone, the comics and other material.
They found 93 movies and 210 stills classed as category A – showing children being subjected to penetrative sex acts.
One of the children being abused was potentially as young as two years old, and other images showed adults having sex with girls aged from three upwards and pre-pubescent boys.
There were 46 movies and 205 stills in category B, of children being subjected to non-penetrative sex acts; and 10 movies and 541 stills of children in naked or indecent poses.
When Knight was interviewed he admitted possessing all the images, and said he had a problem and had been trying to purge himself of it and had deleted a lot of them, added Miss Jackson.
Aadhithya Anbahan, defending, said Knight, who had left Coventry University just three weeks ago, after completing an environmental sciences degree course, has been engaging with the Stop It Now Foundation.
“It is clear he accepts his behaviour is harmful, and he does not wish to repeat it. He has been trying to purge himself of this since as early as 2013.”
The judge interjected: “The point is this, your client obtained sexual gratification from these images, and he chose to download them.”
Asking for Knight to be given a suspended sentence, Miss Anbahan pointed out that he had co-operated with the police and had told them where the files were on the computer and memory stick.
But jailing Knight, Judge Eyre told him: “Behind each of the images lies a child who has been the victim of this offending.
“Some of these children were as young as two, or three, or four, although I accept the majority were older. Some showed signs of distress, although I accept the majority did not.
“… Each child who is forced into this kind of activity is a victim.”
In a separate hearing Gary Smith (49) of the same address, pleaded not guilty to six charges of making indecent images of children.
He denies any knowledge of the images found on his computer, which he says he had got from Knight who had previously built and used it.
Smith’s case was adjourned for trial, and he was granted bail.
