Engineer given community order for child porn offences
A TELECOMMUNICATIONS engineer who had child porn on his computer has walked free from Lincoln Crown Court.
John Wood was arrested in June last year after police raided his home near Bourne and seized a CD disk and computers.
Phil Howes, prosecuting, said when the items were examined police found 13 indecent images of children including naked girls aged as young as eight years old.
Further extreme pornographic images were found.
John Wood ,38, of The Kippings, Thurlby, pleaded guilty to two charges of possession of a total of 17 extreme pornographic images on June 22, 2009.
Wood also admitted a single charge of possession of 13 indecent images of children on the same date.
He was given a three-year community order with a condition to complete a sex offenders' programme.
Wood was also placed on the sex offenders register for five years and ordered to pay 500 prosecution costs.
Lawrence Bruce, defending, said Wood had no previous convictions and was a man of "impeccable" previous character.
He said: "He is now on Job Seekers' Allowance. He lost his employment as a telecommunications engineer in the course of these proceedings.
"This case has caused him personal devastation. He has been villified in the local community and the local press. He has had bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts."
Mr Bruce said Wood had suffered a number of "hammer blows" to his life over the last year including the death of his grandmother and of a teenage son.
He described the child porn images as at the lower end of the scale and said the extreme porn was "the more exotic kind of sexual activity between adults".
Letters from Wood's wife and three step-daughters were submitted to Judge Michael Heath to consider before sentencing.
The Judge said: "I'm not terribly impressed. They obviously don't know him as well as they thought."
The Judge told Wood: "You downloaded this stuff for your own sexual gratification. I have come to the conclusion that the most appropriate way of dealing with this is by imposing a community order."
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