Man jailed over indecent pictures

A SUFFOLK man has been jailed for having sexual pictures of children, some as young as two.

David Bean, pleaded guilty to 16 charges of making indecent photographs of children and possessing a quantity of indecent images of children on his laptop computer.

Police discovered the images when they raided his Bury St Edmunds home on February 8.

They also discovered the 34-year-old had a "wash out" programme to delete any trace of unwanted folders.

Bean's barrister at Ipswich Crown Court, Neil Macaulay, said his client's hard drive on his computer "was not particularly large and that is why he had the wash out programme".

A total of 111 images were found on Bean's computer, 68 were the least offensive at level one, 12 were level two, nine were level three and 22 were the most offensive at level four.

Robert Sadd prosecuting said: "With some images it is plain the children would have suffered substantially."

Mr Macaulay said Bean did not realise the severity of what he had done at the time of his offending but had since sought sexual psychotherapy and now recognised how serious the charges were.

He said Bean was sexually abused as a child by his friend's mother in Zimbabwe and he "used pornography as a comforter".

He added that Bean was a vulnerable man with suicidal tendencies and drink and drugs problems who had been "shaken to the core" by the court proceedings.

Judge John Holt said: "I am particularly concerned about the nine level three and 22 level four images."

He said there were several level four images where the child was between 18 months and two years old and one of the images showed a child aged between five and eight years.

He added: "You must have known just how repellent those photographs are and the harm being done to those children."

Bean, now of Wandsworth, London, was jailed for six months, put on licence for three years to be supervised by probation, told to sign the sex offenders' register and disqualified from working with children.