A man who returned to searching for erotic images of young girls yet again, despite being subject to a community order for similar offences, has been told he has to be punished.
Photos of a young local girl were also found on his camera next to binoculars by the window.
A judge at Warwick Crown Court rejected an argument that Charles Wale could be given a suspended sentence after he had pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children.
Wale (67) of Dulverton Avenue, Coundon, Coventry, was jailed for four months, and told he will still be subject to the community sentence and a sex offender programme on his release.
He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years – although that is a technicality because he already has to register for life because of his earlier offences.
Prosecutor Andrew Hope explained that in 2007 Wale had been jailed for 20 months, with a three-year extended period on licence, for 11 offences of making indecent images of children.
Then in September 2015 he escaped being jailed for three similar offences after the judge on that occasion heard he had already spent the equivalent of a 12-month sentence on remand.
Instead he was made subject to a three-year community sentence and ordered to take part in a sex offender programme, which is due to continue until September this year.
As a result of that order, in May last year police officers went to his home for a routine visit and to check what internet-capable devices he had.
When they went in, on the coffee table they saw an open laptop which Wale accepted was his and that it would contain indecent images.
On the laptop and a USB stick officers subsequently found 30 category C indecent images showing young girls aged 13-15 ‘in various poses and states of undress.’
Deputy Judge Richard Griffith-Jones observed that the officers also found the curtains almost drawn and a pair of binoculars and a camera near the window.
On the camera were ‘a limited number’ of images of a child who lived nearby, although that had not led to any charges.
Mr Hope said some of the indecent images appeared to have been downloaded from a Russian website, although officers were unable to gain access to the site and believe Wale would have had to be sent details of how to access it.
Christopher Jones, defending, said: “He knows today there is a very, very high risk of him going to custody.
“It seems that when he has a crisis in his life, he turns to these images. That’s the only explanation he can give.”
But the judge responded: “I don’t accept that. He likes these images, and he goes back to them. He uses any crisis as an excuse.”
Judge Griffith-Jones said that in view of the category of the images, the appropriate sentence, giving Wale credit for his plea, would be four months.
Mr Jones posed the question: “I wonder whether such a short sentence is going to do anything other than punish him.”
The judge remarked: “It would be precisely that, and to discourage him from giving in to this impulse again.”
He said he wanted to ‘balance punishment with help,’ and a short sentence would mean Wale could serve his time in jail and then come out with time to complete the sex offender programme.
Judge Griffith-Jones told Wale: “Some of what I’m going to say to you will have been said to you before, but it does bear repeating.
“The law that you’ve broken is there to protect children, wherever they are in the world, from being exploited – and people exploit them because they want to make money from a market of illicit consumers of which you, I’m afraid, are an enthusiastic one.
“You have been in trouble for this before, and in 2015 you were sentenced to a three-year community order which, in fairness to you, you largely co-operated with.
“But I cannot overlook a return, for no good reason other than that you enjoy it, to possessing pictures of children in exotic poses.
“I will not suspend the sentence. This is designed to punish you and to discourage you from such behaviour.”
