Mansfield pervert downloaded vile child abuse images featuring children as young as three
A Mansfied pervert who downloaded vile child abuse imagery featuring the rape of children as young as three-years-old has been sentenced at the crown court.
Police raided Paul White's home last year after detecting illegal activity on a Snapchat account associated with his email address, said Mark Achurch, prosecuting.
White, aged 22, acknowledged being in a chat group where indecent images were shared. He said he viewed them some months ago but had since been banned by Snapchat.
He handed over his phone, stating that nothing incriminating would be found as he had deleted all the material.
Even though the phone was damaged, analysis found ten category A indecent images of children and nine category C images, between July 23, 2024, and September 17 last year. The material featured male and female children aged three to 12 years.
One video featured the rape of a three-year-old boy by an animal, as well as a five-year-old showing "discernible distress" while being raped by an adult male.
Lauren Manuel, mitigating, said White, of previous good character, was very open and honest with the police.
"He said he seen some of the images and tried to delete them," she said. "Some of the images were found in the deleted gallery.
"Thankfully he no longer accesses any such groups. He joined the group with a view to watching adult pornography.
"He is utterly embarrassed and ashamed. He is neuro-divergent. There has been no further offending since his arrest. In my submission he is wholly capable of re-offending."
Ms Manuel asked for the relatively low number of images found by police to be taken into account.
White, now aged 22, of Williamson Street, Mansfield, admitted making indecent photographs of children, when he appeared at Nottingham Crown Court, on February 26.
On Tuesday, Judge Nirmal Shant KC, the Recorder of Nottingham, told him: “Although these are very serious matters involving real children I have concluded the sentence can be suspended. The courses are designed to make you understand the impact of your offending.”
She sentenced him to eight months, suspended for two years, with two different programmes to ensure any risk of reoffending can be managed in the community.
He was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years and made the subject of a ten-year sexual harm prevention order.