Lincolnshire man who downloaded child porn with four-year-old girls avoids jail

A man who downloaded child porn videos onto his computer has been spared a jail sentence at Lincoln Crown Court.

Tom Weaver was caught after police discovered the films on a file sharing site and traced them back to Weaver’s computer.

David Horne, prosecuting, said that officers raided Weaver’s home in September 2014 and took away his computer to be examined.

“He said he downloaded music and pornography. He said he searched for pornography when he was bored and when he was drunk. He denied having any sexual interest in children.”

Horne said that a total of 46 child porn videos were found on Weaver’s computer some featuring girls as young as four years old.

Weaver, 47, of Crown Hill, Ropsley, admitted possession of indecent images of children and three charges of making indecent images.

Lisa Hardy, defending, said Weaver had only accessed the films on two days describing his activities as “a relatively short-lived binge”.

She told the court: “Until this offence he was of good character. There were a relatively low number of images and there is now suggestion he attempted to conceal them.”

Hardy said that at the time of the offences Weaver was signed off work with depression and had sought help from his GP.

“His alcohol was becoming out of control. He was binge drinking.”

Recorder Nigel Daly, passing sentence on March 14, told Weaver: “You have accepted what you have done and have tried to do something about your underlying problems such as alcohol and depression.

“What I want to do, if possible, is to prevent you doing this sort of thing again. The best way of dealing with you is that which is recommended in the pre-sentence report.”

Weaver was given a three year community order with supervision and ordered to complete a community sex offender group work programme.

He was also given a five year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.