Description
A Leicester man who admitted to a number of offences linked to indecent images of children has been jailed.
Neil Garnett, 58, of HMP Leicester, appeared at Leicester Crown Court yesterday (Tuesday 23 May) and pleaded guilty to six counts of making indecent images of children and three counts of distribution.
He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.
In April 2021 officers received information suggesting Garnett has been accessing indecent images of children online. He was subsequently charged with three counts of making Category A to C images, of children.
Garnett failed to appear in court for his first hearing in March this year and was arrested for failing to appear in court.
When he was arrested a mobile phone was seized from him and contained indecent images of children.
After further examination of the phone the true extent of his offending was discovered. Hundreds of images of children ranging from Category A to C were found on his phone.
He was further charged with three counts of making category A-C indecent images of children and three counts of distribution of Category A-C images of children.
At crown court yesterday, he was also given a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.
Detective Constable Glen Reid from the force’s Artemis team in the Digital Hub was the investigating officer. He said: “When Garnett was interviewed about the offences, he tried to trivialise his actions. Just because these offences are online, doesn’t make it any better than physical abuse. Online offenders are perpetuating the harm caused to children.
“We are pleased he admitted his involvement in these offences. We hope his time in prison, with the addition of being given a SHPO and being placed on the Sex Offender’s Register, will deter him from committing further offences and he seeks the help he needs to reform.”
- During an investigation of this nature specialist officers will grade indecent images of children categories A to C. Category A images are the most serious. Categories B and C are less serious than category A as far as sentencing is concerned but nonetheless are still serious images of child abuse.
- The offence of making indecent images relates a person performing an action that has ‘made’ those images appear on their device, for example by downloading them from a website. Making indecent images does not mean that they are the person that was the actual contact abuser.