May 2016

Man jailed for downloading child abuse images while living at girlfriend’s home in Rugby

A man who downloaded child sexual abuse images while he was living at his girlfriend’s home in Rugby was caught after one of her sons became suspicious and checked his computer.

The police were contacted about what was found on Paul Armitage’s computer, and at Warwick Crown Court he pleaded guilty to four charges of making indecent images of children.

Armitage, 54, now of Southfield Court, Gloucester, was jailed for eight months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.

Prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard said that last year Armitage was in a relationship with a Rugby woman and living at her home, but her son had concerns about him.

So when he went to check on his mother’s home when she and Armitage were on holiday in July, he decided to look on Armitage’s computer.

At first he saw a couple of videos of children which, although they were not of an indecent nature, made him suspicious.

“He carried on looking and found a folder which did contain indecent images of children, and he contacted the police who seized the computer, a hard drive and a laptop.”

On the computer officers found 142 images classed as being in category C, showing girls aged between 10 and 14 in naked or indecent poses without actual sexual activity.

But there was one image of a 13-year-old girl which had been copied between the devices which was in category A, the most serious category.

When he was arrested Armitage claimed he had not been looking for images of children, and suggested they were ‘pop-ups’ which had appeared on his computer as he searched for other material.

But he then admitted he had ‘a voyeuristic interest’ in them – and eventually accepted he did get sexual gratification from the images.

And Miss Orchard added that in the 90s Armitage had been given a caution for indecent exposure after performing a sex act in a car in a public area.

The court heard that since his arrest Armitage has had an accident which caused a brain injury, as a result of which he says he has no recollection of downloading the images.

Jailing Armitage, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC also imposed a sexual harm prevention order preventing him having unsupervised contact with children and imposing conditions on his use of the internet.