Record details
A cyber forensics expert who sold software to the police, Interpol and the FBI has been jailed after he accidentally gave his work a hard drive full of child pornography.
Iain Nash was jailed for 15 months and branded a danger to children after officers discovered a library of child pornography on his home PC.
The 46-year-old mistakenly handed in a personal hard drive with the images on and 'frantically' messaged a colleague, pleading with him to 'delete the image'.
Suspicious, the co-worker looked through the device and found vile images of youngsters being abused by paedophiles, a court heard.
Nash was then given a deadline to allow him to surrender himself to police and confess.
Officers then seized Nash's mobile phone and a total of 35 other electronic devices and found 1,123 pictures - some including a 12-month baby - plus others featuring girls aged between four and six being raped.
Sentencing him, the judge slammed his crimes as 'truly horrific' and said: 'It is the demand for this material which stokes and incentivises the supply of it,' adding 'these were real children being raped by real men'.
When quizzed, Nash, who lives in a £540,000 house in Congleton, Cheshire, claimed he only took a sexual interest in children for a brief time in 2013 when his marriage was on the rocks.
But officers found a poem he had written in 2006 in which he confessed his desires for underage girls.
At Chester Crown Court, Nash was jailed after he pleaded guilty to charges of possessing, making, taking and distributing indecent images of children.
He was also made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will have to sign on the Sex Offenders' Register for ten years. His current girlfriend is standing by him.
The court heard Nash had begun working for MD5 Ltd, a Digital Forensics company who provides Virtual Forensic Computing software to law enforcement agencies.As well as Interpol and the FBI, clients also included the National Crime Agency, Homeland Security, the Australian Federal Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Prosecutor Philip Clemo said: 'The defendant's role was as a Business Development Manager, selling software to high-tech crime and law enforcement agencies and involved him visiting police stations and giving demonstrations of the software packages.
'At the beginning of January 2020, the defendant handed in his notice and worked his four week notice period which ended on February 6.
'The defendant returned the laptop and phone he had been provided with and, in accordance with standard procedure when employees left the company, these were forensically imaged and there were no issues with either device.
'The defendant had also been asked to return the external hard-drive he had upgraded his work laptop with, which he did on January 31. However, a staff member at MG5 who the external drive had been given to, was contacted by the defendant on the February 3 stating that he had provided his personal external drive in error and asked for it to be handed back.
'He stated within the message "If you've already imaged it, I'd be obliged if you would delete the image" and said he would be at the office within two hours.
'Suspicions were raised and when the staff member viewed data from the drive, he identified video and image files indicative of indecent images of children.
'The defendant was then contacted and given a deadline to contact the police otherwise his former manager would contact them himself. The defendant did attend at Congleton Police Station on February 14, 2020, saying that two years earlier he had downloaded pictures of young girls from the internet.
'His mobile phone was seized, along with the external hard-drive he had handed in to MD5 and 27 other electronic devices seized from his address.'
The court was told images included those of a child aged 12-18 months, and images of children were located on seven devices. One file read 'hot teen girls are best 2'.'
Nash had set webpages as favourites including 'welcome to paedo paradise' and 'the best child porn site ever!!!'.
Two documents entitled 'Dangerous Innocence.doc' and 'Lotis Gala Night.txt' were found, with the former being written by Nash, detailing the narrator's 'first sexual encounter' and attraction to female children.
A document containing altered lyrics to the 1999 hit song Mambo Number 5 by German singer Lou Bega was filed under the name 'Paedo No 5'.
Nash was later bailed but was subsequently caught drink driving and was then convicted of weapons offences after security staff found a pen knife in his pocket as he attended court.
In mitigation, defence counsel Nicola Daley said: 'I accept this is a serious case that undoubtedly passes the custody threshold and the defendant comes to this court in trepidation and fear of that. But this is also a case of a 46-year-old man who at the time he committed these offences he had no other convictions. Though some of the images date from 2020 the majority of the dates were a lot earlier.
'They are all dates now that are multiple years away from where we are now in 2024.'
But in sentencing the judge Mr Recorder Richard Conley told Nash: 'There can be no doubt as to the gravity and the truly horrific nature of the material that was in your possession.
'These were real children being raped by real men for the sexual enjoyment and gratification of people like you. Were it not for people like you, these horrific offences would not have to be committed. It is the demand for this material which stokes and incentivises the supply of it.
'It has been suggested the offences only occurred over a short period of time, in a particular low point in your life when your marriage was joyless and in free fall and in decline. But it is also suggested more strongly you did not simply flirt with this sort of material but had a much more established and entrenched attraction to young children, girls in particular.
'I take the view that you are someone who has a serious problem you won't fully face up to. You refused to accept that you were attracted to children and I take the view that you present a danger.'
The judge added: 'I fully accept that you did not intend to return that hard drive to your employer, quite the opposite, but I do not accept that you forgot those images.
'I suspect you spent an uncomfortable and anxious weekend on February 1 and 2, knowing exactly what was in that hard drive and worrying whether it would be discovered by your former employer.
'The fact is you were frantically seeking its return to you, knowing as I am quite sure you did, that the hard drive contained incriminating and illegal matter upon it. The fact you returned the hard drive on the Friday, seeking its return on the Monday, highlights to me the first of numerous examples of your deceitful and dishonest nature.'
