[A] FORMER Lake District pub landlord who downloaded “utterly repellent” child sex abuse pictures has been jailed for a year.
Christopher George Helman, 42, was caught out after Cumbria police were tipped off by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection unit.
A computer IP address linked to illegal images was traced to the Old John Peel Inn, Bowness-on-Windermere. Carlisle Crown Court heard Helman was the registered landlord of the premises at that time.
A total of 1,270 prohibited pictures were found on two hard drives. Almost half were still and moving images classed in category A – the most serious. “Many” of the youngsters featured, the court heard, were “mere infants”.
Helman, of Crook, South Cumbria, was sentenced today (FRI) having admitted three charges of making – and one of possessing – indecent photographs of children.
A man of previous good character, he was jailed by Judge James Adkin, who described the images as “utterly repellent”, “shocking and revolting”.
“This is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified,” Judge Adkin told Helman. “It is a bad example of this sort of offending.”
Helman must also sign the sex offenders’ register for a decade, and abide by the strict terms of a sexual harm prevention order.
