Martin Ballantyne 27

Description

A MAN who downloaded indecent images of young boys has been ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Martin Ballantyne, 27, entered guilty pleas to the following offences when he appeared before Workington Magistrates’ Court:

• Making 29 Category A indecent images of a child – the most serious category of child abuse images
• Making 11 Category B indecent images of a child
• Making 17 Category C indecent images of a child

Outlining the case, Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said Ballantyne was arrested at his home on March 14 last year and was in possession of a mobile phone.

Data on the phone was analysed and indecent images of children were located on the device. Among the Category A images were different images of boys aged between 10 and 12, seven and nine and five and seven. Descriptions of the images read out in court are too graphic to report.

During police interview, Ballantyne initially gave ‘no comment’. He later made ‘significant’ statements and told police he had been ‘looking at stuff’ on Twitter. He said he thought they were all over age.

He later admitted he had been ‘looking at stuff’ and had been ‘looking at young guys’. He then said he had been ‘looking at little boys’.

Ballantyne told police when he gets low, he ‘looks at Twitter’.

John Cooper, defending, said: “It’s 57 images in total. It’s quite clearly not right. Compared with a lot of cases we deal with, it’s a relatively low number.

“Some cases we have here have hundreds or thousands of images.”

Magistrates adjourned the case until June 4 to allow a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the Probation Service.

Ballantyne, of Ennerdale Road, Maryport, was ordered to register with police as a sex offender.