Lee Rouse 53

Description

A spanking fetishist who is addicted to child abuse images has been jailed after police found his 16,000 item collection in a secret safe.

Lee Rouse kept a USB stick and a removeable hard drive in a secure box in his bedroom which was designed to look like a large book.

Police broke open the safe after finding literature about the physical punishment of children during a search of his home in Exmouth earlier this year.

He has three previous convictions for downloading child abuse material from the internet and admitted to a probation officer that he was addicted to films and photos which showed young girls being abused.

Rouse changed his name from Lidio Morrineau after being released from his most recent jail sentence but was still on licence and subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which allowed to police to check on him at any time.

They were called to his home after he had a bust-up with his brother and found the safe and the spanking literature in his room. Previous checks had found nothing on his computer because he was downloading the abuse images onto the removeable drives.

There were 16,281 items on them but forensic experts only analysed 1,017 of them before concluding they had enough evidence to prosecute. 

Rouse’s collection showed children as young as two suffering serious abuse, with some items showing children being ‘chastised’.

There were 231 movies and 140 still images in the worst category, which showed acts amounting to child rape. Just under half of the material fell into the lowest category and showed nudity or sexual posing.

Rouse has previous convictions from 2004, 2013 and 2021 and has twice been found with child mannequins dressed as little girls.

Rouse, aged 52, of Withycombe Park Drive, Exmouth, admitted three counts of possession of indecent images of children and one of possessing a Samurai sword as an offensive weapon.

He was jailed for two years and two months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court and made subject of a new, tighter, Sexual Harm Prevention order for ten years. It includes all known forms of digital storage.

The judge told him: “You had been downloading images from the internet for a considerable period of time. You last accessed them not long before the police came calling and found the concealed safe in which you had hidden two digital devices.

“That concealment was a step you have taken to minimise the risk of being caught. The probation report says you admit to having an addiction to accessing and downloading such images and that you acknowledge a sexual attraction to under age girls.”

Mr Thomas Faulkner, prosecuting, said police were called by Rouse’s brother on August 1 this year after an argument at their mother’s home. Officers carried out a thorough search and found the book-safe.

They also found literature in Rouse’s bedroom about the physical punishment of children and seized a 74 cm long ceremonial sword. Nothing was found on his phone or laptop, which appeared as if it had been taken back to factory settings.

Mr Faulkner said: “He was asked about the safe and said he had lost the key and could not remember the last time he accessed it. He gave police permission to open it but said there was nothing inside.

“The aggravating factors in this case are his previous convictions and failure to comply with orders and the discernible distress of some of the victims as a result of chastisement. Some of the images depicted spankings of children.”

In all, there were 13 category A, six B, and seven C images on the USB and 16,281 images on the hard drive. Those which were examined were categorized as 231 movies and 140 images at A; 41 movies and 74 images at B and 75 movies and 457 images at C.

They had been downloaded between February 2019 and June 26 this year. Rouse told police he had forgotten about the book safe.

Miss Mary McCarthy. defending, said Rouse is determined to overcome his problem and believes that he will have a better chance of doing so if he finds a job and stops drinking when he is released from jail.