Ian Banks 70

Description

He is an East Yorkshire farmer who presented himself as a charitable fundraiser who made regular trips to Nepal to help impoverished communities.

A pillar of his community, Ian Banks raised thousands of pounds to help build a hospital in the Himalayas and regularly took gifts from locals, including on one trip 100 knitted teddies, for Nepalese children.

But this week Banks has been exposed as a sex offender who used his connections in Nepal to become involved in child sexual exploitation. At Hull Crown Court, he admitted charges connected to the sexual abuse of children.

The court heard Banks had initially been arrested in 2019 and it was suspected at the time that he had been involved in "significantly more serious" matters, but these were not pursued against him.

But on the day he was due to face trial on lesser charges this week, Banks admitted sexual abuse charges relating to his activities in Nepal. One of the charges involved the abuse of babies and toddlers.

Although he was not involved in the actual sexual abuse of "incredibly small children" by his activities, he was still helping to fuel the sick trade, the court heard.

Retired farmer Banks, of Dunnington, near Driffield, also admitted attempting to cause or incite the sexual exploitation of a 17-year-old boy in May 2014 by asking him to be involved in pornography through sending an indecent image of his body.

He also admitted two offences of making an indecent image of a child, one in the most serious Category A and the other in Category C, on March 5, 2019. Banks had pleaded guilty on the day of a scheduled trial before magistrates.

James Holding, prosecuting, said that Banks had regularly visited Nepal and had a number of Nepalese business cards. He was arrested at his home on March 5, 2019 and his phone was searched. He was taken into police custody but made no comment.

Chat logs were found on Facebook in which he had asked for naked pictures to be sent to him. He had said that it would be "totally their secret". He was sent a Category A image.

There was a further chat and a Category C image was sent. The activities of Banks had caused the sexual exploitation of a child, said Mr Holding. Pictures of children aged one, two and three years old were involved but Banks seemed to think that they were, in his word, "funny".

Ian Phillip, mitigating, said that Banks was arrested in 2019 and it was suspected at the time that he had been involved in other "significantly more serious" matters, but these were not pursued against him.

The images were recovered from numerous chat logs. "It was not suggested that he had been seeking out these images online," said Mr Phillip. "Nevertheless, he was sent them. They are at the less serious end of the scale of offences that appear at this court."

Banks had been on bail for 13 months, with a curfew. He was of previous good character and had been assessed as being at a low risk of re-offending. "There is no suggestion that, since his arrest in 2019, there have been any concerns whatever," said Mr Phillip.

Judge Sophie McKone told Banks: "These are very young children but they are not contact offences."

A 17-year-old boy was involved in the attempted sexual exploitation offence and "incredibly small children" were featured in the indecent images offences.

"I accept that you didn't ask for these images but you kept them," said Judge McKone. "You asked for indecent photos of somebody who was 17 and that's illegal. That person was a child and that should not have happened.

"The courts do take very seriously the possession of indecent images of children. There may be only three images but the children are real children and they are actually being abused. Although you have not touched a child yourself, you do contribute to the abuse of children in some way by retaining those images."

Judge McKone said there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in his case. Banks was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence, 30 days' rehabilitation and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He must register as a sex offender for 10 years. A computer will be forfeited.