A convicted sex offender, who shared images of children being abused with like-minded paedophiles over the internet, has been jailed.
Police executed a search warrant at the home of Dean Whiteley in Berry Brow on March 27 this year and seized a Nokia mobile phone and Sony laptop, both of which were found to have thousands of images on them.
Philip Adams prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court there were 617 still images and 268 movies at Category A, the most serious.
They also discovered 959 still images and 663 movies at Category B and 3,143 still images and 113 movies at Category C.
Officers also discovered 132 stills and five movies which were categorised as prohibited images. The children depicted were mainly boys aged from four to 14.
He said it was also clear when the items were examined that Whiteley had downloaded three separate peer to peer file sharing programmes allowing sharing of such images.
He accepted he had a previous conviction for indecent assault on a boy in 2001 and said he had spoken to a psychologist after that and considered looking at images “the lesser of two evils.”
Mr Adams said Whiteley was interviewed again in July and admitted having a sexual interest in boys aged nine to 12. He also accepted he had been file sharing, distributing some images to other people.
He said he was conscious of law enforcement agencies and would ask the user concerned to send him a picture before he would let them access what he had on his computer.
He accepted he had shared images with four or five other people he did not know and had been doing so for approximately five years. He said the police investigation was a “wake-up call” and he wanted to get help for what he described as “his addiction.”
Paul Fleming representing Whiteley said because he had been so frank and open about what he had been doing the probation service considered they could work with him towards rehabilitation which would benefit society in the long term.
He had managed to modify his behaviour following his indecent assault conviction and had shown restraint preventing similar behaviour “unfortunately these desires found their outlet in another way.”
Whiteley, 53 of Wain Court, admitted 12 charges of making indecent images, two of possessing prohibited images and three of distribution.
Jailing him for two years and four months, Judge Guy Kearl QC said there were a large number of images involving serious abuse of children. “It is you and people like you, who because of their possession and in your case distribution, promote the market for these images.”
