Locations
Rowley Street, Blyth, Northumberland, NE24
Description
Jonathan Sweet, of Blyth, was caught with hundreds of child abuse images on his mobile phone
A pervert who had indecent images of children as young as six months has walked free from court.
Jonathan Sweet had hundreds of sickening pictures and videos of youngsters on his mobile phone when police seized it. Newcastle Crown Court heard police found the material in an app on his phone after devices were seized on October 21 2021.
Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said: "After information was received, officers attended his home address. Two devices were seized and examined but nothing was found on them. Officers then attended his place of work and seized his mobile phone. When that was examined it was found to contain indecent images of children."
The court heard there were 162 pictures and 69 movies of the most serious, category A, kind, 103 pictures and 44 movies in category B and 272 pictures and 13 movies in category C. The children were aged between six months and 13 years.
Sweet, 40, of Rowley Street, Blyth, Northumberland, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images of children. Judge Stephen Earl sentenced him to 18 months suspended for two years with a requirement he complete a sex offenders treatment programme. He must also sign the sex offenders register for ten years and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order.
The judge said the children in the images "were and continue to be victimised while those images remain and people are watching them".
Sweet told probation officers he didn't download the images but said no one else had access to his phone. Jennifer Coxon, defending, said: "He fully accepts the prosecution case and maintains his guilty plea."
She added: "The images were found in an inaccessible place which means they were either deleted or created by the software. He is a hard-working young man and has a long-term relationship and no children."