Leslie Botham, 81, was found to have thousands of sick images of children as young as 12 months, as well as others involving images, but was allowed to walk free from court
A perverted pensioner who claimed he downloaded more than 1,000 vile images of children as young as 12 months by accident was told he was talking “complete nonsense”.
Police searched the home of Leslie Botham, 81, and seized two laptops, two phones and three external hard drives. Liverpool Crown Court heard how they found category A 1,157 indecent images, the most serious forms of abuse. Of those 899 were found to be video clips, one of which showed a 12-month-old baby being sexually assaulted. He was also found to have 730 category B images and 462 in category C.
His sick haul also had 666 computer generated prohibited images of children and 149 extreme pornographic images showing adults engaging in sexual activity with animals, including horses and dogs, Liverpool Echo reported.
Botham admitted possession of a paedophile manual, possession of indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images, possession of prohibited images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images. He was handed a 20-month imprisonment suspended for two years.
Another 25,329 images which were located on the devices were not looked at by officers. Under interview, Botham told detectives that he “didn’t know what the material was when he downloaded it” and then “left it there”.
Carmel Wilde, defending, told the court: “Clearly, these offences are abhorrent. His daily lifestyle lacks social interaction. He has found solace in the internet and progressed to this dreadful, disgraceful offending.
“At 81 years of age, he has led a law-abiding life until now. Your honour will have read about the unfortunate passing of his late wife. He was married for 53 years. He has adult children now and no friends.
“These are dreadful, disgusting offences which the defendant must learn from. The defendant has shown some insight that, essentially, he is creating a market for children to be sexually abused.
“Given the defendant’s strong personal mitigation, particularly his elderly age and the fact that he has no previous convictions, I seek to persuade your honour the court can conclude there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.”
Sentencing, Judge Gary Woodhall said: “This was a large catalogue of material. These images involved children as young as 12 to 18 months old. Some of the images show children in distress. There are still, I am told, a further 25,000 images which have not been categorised.”
“That, in and of itself, disproves your assertion this was accidentally finding material which you downloaded and then sought to delete. You claim not to have known what the material was. I reject that assertion.
“You deny any sexual interest in children, claiming only curiosity. Again, I reject that. You do not accept meaningful responsibility for this offending, claiming that it was accidentally downloaded. That is complete nonsense.
“You clearly developed a habit of accessing pornographic websites after your wife passed away. Even if you cannot admit it to yourself, this offending was obviously motivated by sexual gratification.”
Botham will also be required to complete a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 30 days. He was handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and told to sign the sex offenders’ register for the next decade.
