Newport man had more than 180,000 child porn images

Michael David John, 53, of Fisher Close, Ringland, appeared in Newport Crown Court for sentencing, having previously admitted 36 counts of making indecent images of children and three counts of possessing indecent images of children. The offences took place between February 2006 and January 2010.

Prosecutor David Webster said police raided John's home on January 21, 2010, where they found a "very substantial quantity" of child pornography on DVDs, a computer with two hard drives, two cameras, as well as printed images.

Mr Webster said John pleaded guilty on the basis that he was in possession of a total of 183,049 indecent images, made up of 1,680 level five images - the worst level -, 28,293 level four images, 22,898 level three, 4,318 level two and 125,860 level one images. He said among the level five images were 72 videos.

The court heard that when John was arrested he told officers he would have to "face up" to what he had done, but made no comment during interview.

Representing John, Robin Shellard said the images were for personal use and there was no evidence John distributed any of the images.

Mr Shellard said John had "spiralled down into a lonely, depressed and obsessive person" over the past five years.

He said John did not have a job or a partner and spent too much time on the internet which became an obsession.

Mr Shellard said John's use of the internet rose out of his enthusiasm for genealogy, a field in which he was regarded as a local expert.

He said: "What he has found very difficult is his inability to square the morality of the person he thinks he is with the immorality of what he has done."

Judge David Morris said: "It has to be understood that those who obtain these images over the internet, albeit purely for their own sexual gratification in private, are nonetheless contributing to the worldwide sexual abuse of children.

"If there was not a market with such as you being keen to obtain these images there would be no abuse of children on a commercial scale for profit as there is."

John was sentenced to 12-months in prison and order to register as a sex offender for 10 years. Judge Morris also made John the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, restricting his use of the internet, and ordered that another hearing should be listed for legal arguments over a deprivation order relating to items seized during the raid.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Is this proper punishment?

TODAY we report on the case of a man who downloaded more than 180,000 indecent images of children.

Michael David John was thought to have the most extensive collection of child porn ever recovered in Gwent.

He was jailed for one year after admitting various offences.

Earlier in the week another man, Thomas Williams, was jailed for two years after exchanging and distributing 6,000 sick images.

Our readers will rightly be curious about the discrepancy in sentencing for these two offences.

In the eyes of the law, even though Williams had 6,000 images, his offence is deemed more serious as he distributed those images, unlike John who viewed them.

What we find hard to understand is how someone who has 180,000 images gets one year and will probably serve only half.

Those who view images should get a much higher sentence while those who distribute them should get even more.

Anyone viewing child porn is helping to keep this vile trade going.

If the demand wasn’t there from people like Williams and John then there wouldn’t be child porn.

It’s because of these people that innocent children are abused and pictured and put on the internet.

There are no excuses. Those caught with images and those dealing in images should expect a lengthy jail sentence for playing their part in this sickening trade.

The public will be rightly worried by sentences where people are out of jail in a matter of months.