Caythorpe man caught with thousands of indecent images of children

A Caythorpe man who was caught with thousands of indecent images of children after police arrested him in his car, has been handed a suspended jail sentence.
Lincoln Crown Court. EMN-210128-181940001Lincoln Crown Court. EMN-210128-181940001
Lincoln Crown Court. EMN-210128-181940001

Anthony Burke, 65, of Caythorpe Heath, Caythorpe, admitted four charges at Lincoln Crown Court of possessing indecent images of children.

He was today (Thursday) given a 15-month jail sentence suspended for two years and required to carry out 25 days of rehabilitation activity.

He was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The court heard officers received information that Anthony Burke had been downloading the illegal images and in January 2020 tracked him down to an industrial estate at Caythorpe Heath where he was living in his car.

Victoria Rose, prosecuting, told the court: “The defendant was found in a Sherpa van. He was living in that van and there was a bed in it.

“Another vehicle linked to Burke was nearby. In that vehicle there was a computer hard drive which contained indecent images of children.”

Miss Rose said that a total of 4,181 indecent images of children were on the hard drive of which 344 were classified as being in the most serious category. The images, which had been downloaded between March 2015 and December 2017, showed children as young as four years old being abused.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

When Burke was interviewed by police, he admitted what he had been doing.

Miss Rose told the court: “He said he knew it was wrong, but he became addicted.”

Mark Watson, in mitigation, said that Burke’s life was at a low ebb at the time following the death of his mother from cancer followed by his wife being diagnosed with the disease.

“Until that point the defendant didn’t have a computer.

“Computers and the internet were alien to him. Having gained access to the worldwide web he also began looking at these images and his interest became an addiction.”

He said that Burke had no convictions for any similar offence and had not accessed any illegal images for over three years having stopped looking at them.