Stamford man who downloaded baby and child images avoids jail

A Stamford man who downloaded indecent images of children has escaped an immediate jail sentence at Lincoln Crown Court.

Tyler Curtis downloaded hundreds of images including one of a baby being raped which he then stored in a cloud system.

Abigail Hill, prosecuting, said that police received information which led to officers raiding his then home in Dickens Drive, Stamford and his work place.

A total of 320 indecent images of children were found on three different devices together with 26 prohibited images of children.

Mrs Hill said: “The images were downloaded over an eight year period between May 5, 2012 and March 17, 2020.

“When the defendant was interviewed he admitted he had been storing images in his Google Drive account. He said he hadn’t realised they were illegal.

“He denied any sexual interest in children. He said he uploaded the images to a cloud system so that his wife didn’t see them.”

Curtis, 34, now of Milner Court, Wharf Road, Stamford, admitted three charges of making indecent images of children and one charge of possessing prohibited images of children. He asked for a further matter of making indecent images of children to be taken into consideration.

Steven Gosnell, in mitigation, said Curtis had no previous convictions and is working.

“He has engaged in counselling. That is something that he has paid for privately.”

Mr Gosnell said that as a result of the offences Curtis has separated from his wife.

“He has been through a great deal of pain but he accepts it is because of his actions that he is in this position.”

Mr Gosnell said Curtis was focussing on rehabilitation and has faced up to his issues as well as now admitting he is sexually attracted to girls.

Curtis was given a 14 month jail sentence suspended for 18 months with a 35 day rehabilitation activity requirement. He was ordered to complete a sexual offending treatment programme and has to pay £425 prosecution costs.

He was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and given a 10 year sexual harm prevention order.