Man jailed after discovery of 3,000 indecent images

A 28-YEAR-OLD man has been locked up for eight months after hewas found to have more than 3,000 indecent images of children.Swansea Crown Court heard that Anthony Clarke, of BarnsfieldTerrace, Carmarthen, had also distributed some of the pictures to"like-minded" internet users.

He was caught out after he sold his car last year and the newowner discovered a memory stick in the vehicle.

Brian Simpson, prosecuting, said: "She looked at the contents ofthe memory stick and found it had indecent images of young boys.

"She contacted police and on February 9 they attended hisaddress." Computer equipment was seized from the premises.

"These were examined and found to contain indecent images ofchildren," said Mr Simpson. "In his van officers also found twostolen sat navs." The court heard in total Clarke, who has noprevious convictions, had 3,067 indecent images, 31 of which werecategorised at Level 5 and 709 at Level 4. On a scale of 1-5, fiveis considered the most serious. The images distributed were atLevels 1 and 2. "In his interview he admitted downloading all of theimages," said Mr Simpson.

"Via the MSN file sharing system he also said that he had sentthe images onto others on the internet on several occasions. "Hesaid he chats to young boys on internet chat sites but does not meetthem."

Clarke pleaded guilty to 10 counts of making an indecent image ofa child, five counts of distributing images and one charge ofpossession of indecent images. He also admitted handling stolengoods.

Dyfed Thomas, defending, said the distribution charges were basedon situations where images "were sent and shared between like-minded people" on the internet.

Mr Thomas said: "He fully has accepted that by doing what he'sbeen doing he's supported the system which causes these children tobe abused," he said.

Judge Paul Thomas QC sentencing, said: "The distress of some ofthese young boys depicted in these images is all too obvious," hesaid.

Clarke was made subject of a sexual offences prevention order andmust sign the sex offender's register for a decade.?julia.bosnyak@swwmedia.co.uk