Description
A man who avoided jail in 2019 after admitting to possessing thousands of indecent images of children has been sent to prison after he returned to his 'addiction'.
David Andrews, originally from Ivybridge but now from Paignton, appeared at Plymouth Crown Court where faced four charges. The first was that between January 2021 and February 20222 he distributed 28 indecent images of children of Category A, B and C - with A as being the most serious.
He also faced a count of breaching a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order - which was put in place following a hearing at court in 2019 - by being found in possession of a Nokia mobile phone and a USB memory stick which he was prohibited from having without first notifying police.
Andrews also faced one count of making five indecent photos of children of Category B and a further count of making 19 indecent photos of children of Category C. He pleaded guilty to all four charges.
In addition the 69-year-old admitted that he had breached a suspended sentence imposed on July 11, 2019 which the court heard was 24 months imprisonment suspended for 24 months.
Prosecutor Francesca Whebell told the court Andrews was caught after Devon and Cornwall Police were alerted by the National Crime Agency regarding the posting of images from an IP address linked to property in Ivybridge linked to Andrews. Another alert came from an email account which had posted Category A, B and C indecent images of children, linked to Andrews and a Nokia phone.
Police attended the property with a warrant in February 2022 and a number of devices were seized from Andrews. Ms Whebell said that during police interview Andrews said "It's my secret and I hate it".
In mitigation, Andrews advocate, Deni Matthews noted that during his statement Andrews had claimed "I'm not as strong as I thought". Mr Matthews said he wanted to draw an analogy with people who struggle with addiction adding that it was sadly the case that many people were brought before the court "because of a behaviour that they can't resist". He added that for many of those who were successful in "combating that devil within them it takes more than one attempt". He noted that Andrews felt "repulsion" at his own behaviour.
Mr Matthews noted Andrews had been a "hard working" man who had been "very successful" in a number of careers, including a period in the military as well as others which were "conducted in an exemplary fashion". He told the court that as a result of his previous conviction he lost his relationship with his wife and one of his sons. The court also heard that Andrews lost his job as a cleaner and now lived in "a sparsely furnished flat".
PlymouthLive previously reported how in 2019 Andrews was handed the suspended sentence after he was caught with more than 13,000 vile images of children including babies being raped. The former Royal Mail worker - and former Special Constable - had said at the time that he saw no harm in what he was doing.
At the time the sentencing judge told Andrews: "In interview you said you believed you were doing no harm to the children you were viewing. That is nonsense. If people like you did not view this abuse then it would not be perpetrated."
Turning to his latest offences, Judge Peter Johnson noted the previous offences for which he was given a suspended sentence. He said Andrews appeared to doing "quite well" but that he also had "an addiction" to these kinds of images. He also noted how Andrews had told police it was his "problem" and a "secret he had", later telling a probation officers that it was "your secret and [that] you hated it".
Judge Johnson said Andrews had hoped to go "on the straight and narrow" but had "unhappily succumbed to temptation as you candidly admit". He said it was clear Andrews had been deleting material on his devices.
The judge told Andrews these were "serious matters and of course you know that", but recognised that he had served his country and his community in various roles. He also noted how Andrews had lost his job, his relationship, his home, his partner and one of his sons due to his offending.
Judge Johnson said it was "very easy" in a sentencing exercise to concentrate on the offender, "but what you must also concentrate on are the victims of those images who were shown, in two cases, being raped - youngsters under the age of 10, going down to a relatively young age of five or so".
"It's very easy to think that because it's over the internet it doesn't involve real people", Judge Johnson told Andrews. "It does - it's as simple as that."
Taking into account the sentencing guidelines, the early guilty plea, the aggravating and mitigating factors of the case, Judge Johnson said he would pass a sentence of three and a half years of which he would serve half before being released on licence. In addition Andrews was told he would be made subject of another 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The telephone and memory stick would be confiscated and destroyed and Andrews would be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.