Man who made child images indecent had 'too much time on his hands'

Benjamin Potter, 41, of Dales Way had admitted making 93 Category B and 41 Category C images of children when he appeared in court in April and was appearing for sentence following a report from the Probation Service.

The court was told that police visited Potter's address in March 2021 after his name and address were revealed from a file sharing platform and a search revealed the images of children on his mobile phone.

Mitigating, Michael Alexander said Potter knew he was doing wrong and had said he would not do it again.

He said the images themselves originally were not illegal but that Potter, who he described as a 'man with too much time on his hands', had been tampering with the original images by adding various sexual images, thereby making them indecent and illegal.

The magistrates said that tampering with images of pre-pubescent girls by enhancing them with male

sexual organs was 'disgusting' and passed the custody threshold.

However, they had decided to suspend the sentence of six months imprisonment for a period of 18 months .

He was also ordered him to undergo 30 rehabilitation days and pay £213 in court costs and charges.

He was placed on the Sexual Offenders' Register for seven years and served with a five year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.