August 18, 2020 4.47 pm This story is over 44 months old

Lincoln man jailed over collection of child abuse images

He downloaded more images while on bail
Jack Nicholls, 25, has been jailed for over three years. | Photo: Lincolnshire Police
By Local Democracy Reporter

A 25-year-old man from Lincoln has been jailed for three years and three months for downloading of more than 12,000 images of child abuse images, some of which were downloaded while on bail.

Jack Nicholls was sentenced at Lincoln Crown Court on August 13, and was also put on the sex offenders register for life, as well as given an open ended sexual harm prevention order.

Nicholls was charged with six counts of making indecent images of children, two counts of possession of indecent images of children and breaching a sexual harm prevention order in July.

All of his offences took place between March 2018 and January 2020.

He was first arrested and bailed in January when his three mobile phones were seized and 9,852 indecent images were found on them.

Nicholls then continued to download images while on bail, and was arrested for a second time.

After his second arrest, two more phones were seized with a further 2,529 pictures on them.

He had also sent inappropriate messages to a 14-year-old girl in 2018 which led to him breaching his sexual harm prevention order that was placed upon him in 2015.

Inspector Nicola Hill of Lincolnshire Police said: “Behind every indecent image of a child is a vulnerable victim and these crimes are among the most appalling that the team investigates.

“Nicholls is a habitual collector of indecent images that include category A, the most serious kind, for his own sexual gratification.

“There was a lot of work involved from the investigating officer to ensure we had recovered all images.

“Tackling online viewing of indecent images is a priority for police and we will do everything in our power to bring offenders to justice.

“If anybody else is out there suffering in silence I want you to know that there is help and support available, both from Lincolnshire Police, and from reliable and trusted support groups.”