Former West Lancs council officer spared jail over “disgusting” child porn images

Aug 18 2011 by Chloe Griffiths, Skelmersdale Advertiser

A RESPECTED former West Lancashire council officer who watched “disgraceful, disgusting and appalling” child porn videos has been spared jail.

David Carter, an ex-borough council planning officer, was told by a judge on Tuesday that he must have a “twisted mind” to have gained sexual pleasure from such obscene footage.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Carter from Burscough, gave up his career to look after his elderly parents, and was caught after police discovered he had subscribed to an internet news group and downloaded the indecent images.

Judge Mark Brown told Carter: “I have had an opportunity of looking at some of these images and they can be described as disgraceful, disgusting and appalling.”

He added: “There are many many positive qualities as far as your background is concerned, but at the same time you were downloading these images and you accepted to the probation officer that you gained sexual gratification from it.”

Officers seized Carter’s computer after a raid at this home on Liverpool Road South on July 13, last year.

Judge Brown sentenced Carter to a three-year community order with supervision and ordered him to attend the Sex Offenders' Programme run from Northumbria.

In interview, Carter told how he shared his home with his elderly mother and would look at adult porn and admitted “possibly also children”.

Michael Wallbank, prosecuting, told how when experts examined his equipment they found 13 indecent child pornography videos, each about five minutes long.

He said that two were in the lowest two categories, nine in the second most severe level and two were of extreme pornography.

But Judge Brown said such videos would would contain “many thousands of images”.

Carter pleaded guilty to 11 offences of downloading indecent images of children between October 6, 2007 and June 1, 2010 and two of possessing extreme porn.

Michael Hagerty, defending, told how Carter had cared for his dad before he died of cancer and then his mum, who suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease and has died since his arrest.

He said: “They were his principal friends. He is a very lonely individual with few friends and has never had a relationship with a woman.

“He was devoted to his parents and gave up his career to look after them.”

But Judge Brown asked: “What attracted him to this dreadful pornography? It is a twisted mind that gets involved in this sort of pornography.”

Mr Hagerty said Carter, who had no previous convictions, had started with adult porn, but this had spiralled into the child images.

He added: “Apart from this he is an upstanding member of society, neighbours hold him in esteem and he held down his job as a planning officer with West Lancashire Borough Council.”

Carter was ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders' Register and made a Sex Offences Prevention Order restricting his use of the internet and banning him from being alone with any juveniles, both for five years.