Description
A PAEDOPHILE has been locked away by the courts after he was found to be in possession of a sickening stash of photos.
The photos found on a laptop belonging to Keith Secker involved children being sexually abused.
The 46-year-old was later charged with three counts of making indecent images of children (IIOC), one of possessing IIOC and one of breaching a suspended sentence order.
He indicated guilty pleas to all charges before the magistrates’ court, with the case committed to Chester Crown Court for sentence.
The court heard from Karl Scholz, prosecuting the case, how the matters came to a head in February last year.
Police seized Secker’s laptop in Runcorn and submitted it for a forensic examination, with the results confirming the presence of child sex abuse images.
In total, 83 IIOC were discovered, with examples from each of the three categories such images are graded.
Of the 83, 37 were classified as category A – the most severe category involving child rape – while 29 were category B and 17 were category C.
Before sentencing, judge Simon Berkson remarked that the only appropriate sentence he could impose was one of immediate custody.
This was due to the severity of the offences and due to the defendant already being made subject to a suspended sentence order at the time the offences were committed.
Secker, of East Lane in Runcorn, was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment and ordered to sign the sex offender register for the next 10 years.
It was also ordered that he pay a statutory surcharge to fund victim services of £187, while a further order was approved to deprive the defendant of his laptop seized during the police investigation.