Man jailed for downloading grotesque clips of child abuse

A NEWBOLD man who downloaded more than 200 grotesque movie clips of babies and very young children being sexually abused has been jailed.

Simon Graham Lenton, 34, of Grange Road had pleaded guilty to 11 charges of making indecent images of children.

And a judge at Warwick Crown Court, who described them as the worst images she had seen, told him by downloading them he had directly contributed to the horrific abuse they showed.

Lenton stood in the dock shaking and wringing his hands as he was jailed for 18 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years. He was also banned from working with children for life.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: "These are real things happening to real children; it’s not some fantasy world on your computer.

"They are images created for a market, and the market is created by people like you. You are a direct contributor to the horrific abuse of very young children.

"You were also using internet chat rooms to share your interest with other like-minded people.

"What puts this at the top end of offences of this nature are the grotesque nature of the images. They are the worst I have seen and the message must go out if people download images like this they must go to prison."

Lenton was arrested after police received information of what he had been looking at online.

While waiting to be taken to the police station he asked an officer if he would be going to prison, saying he would rather die.

On his computer and a portable hard drive a total of 224 movies, including 187 classed as level four and seven level five - the most serious - were found.

He admitted to have been downloading them since September last year and eventually accepted he did get some sexual gratification from them although denied having any thoughts of actually abusing children.

Nick Devine, defending, had asked the Judge not send Lenton to prison.

"Mr Lenton does appear to be someone who is prepared to accept and confront the motivation for accessing such images.

"The first way to confront a problem is to acknowledge that you’ve got a problem and Mr Lenton does."

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