A MAN who distributed indecent videos of children online has been jailed.

Terence Michael Brown, 66, shared five separate moving images on instant messaging platform Kik.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard one of the most serious videos involved a child around 10 years of age.

Judge Jonathan Fuller KC, who sentenced former Gillingham resident Brown to two years’ imprisonment on Monday, November 14, told the defendant: “The images that you were watching, if the person involved had been caught by the police they would have received a sentence well into double figures and the toxic nature of those images is clear for anybody listening to the description.

“This is not a case of possession for your own gratification. This is a case where you chose not on a single occasion but on multiple occasions, albeit over a short period of time, to distribute those images, as the probation officer says, for other people’s gratification.”

The judge referenced the probation officer’s report which said there was an “indescribable harm” caused to the children in the videos.

“Those images are perpetuated on the internet and you play your part in that,” Judge Fuller KC said. “These are serious offences.”

Prosecuting, Ruba Huleihel said police were alerted to a video sent by the defendant on Kik and on September 9, 2020, officers attended his then home address in Dorset.

Ms Huleihel said a number of devices were seized and searched, with it coming to light Brown had shared five videos across separate occasions in August and September 2020.

Two of the videos were category A – the most serious – while the other three were category B moving images.

Bournemouth Echo:

Brown, now of First Avenue, Eastchurch, Kent, pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing indecent images of children at an earlier hearing.

Mitigating, Laura Deuxberry said there were relevant factors which justified imposing a suspended sentence.

Ms Deuxberry said Brown had no previous convictions, he was remorseful and there was strong personal mitigation.

The defendant was going through a “very distressing time in his life” when he committed the offences and he was drinking to a high level “to cope with his situation”, which meant his thought process was not as clear as it usually would be, the barrister said.

“He said to probation I know I have done something wrong and I know I have to pay the consequences,” Ms Deuxberry said.

Judge Fuller KC said the offending was so serious that there was no alternative to immediate imprisonment.

He also imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and the defendant was placed on the sex offenders register for the same period.

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