The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A computer technician who downloaded videos of young children being abused has been jailed for ten months.
Gene Lee Swallow was arrested after police raided his home in Spalding and discovered that he had used a flash drive connected to his television to access the illegal films.
Lincoln Crown Court heard that one of the films showed the abuse of a young girl and a second film showed an eight-year-old being sexually assaulted.Swallow (46), of Acklam Avenue, admitted two charges of making indecent images of children in November 2014. He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years and given a sexual harm prevention order which is designed to restrict his behaviour on release from his prison sentence.
Passing sentence, Judge Simon Hirst, told him: “These are not victimless offences. The children in these films suffer the most horrendous abuse.
“People like you downloading these films and watching them are encouraging that type of child exploitation.
Mark Watson, in mitigation, told the court: “This defendant’s life has changed for the worse. He has been unable to work in the way that he did in the past.
“He has found himself reclusive and all of this has already taken its toll on him. He is plainly a complex individual with problems that have perhaps not been properly explained.
“He has already lost an awful lot. I ask you not to compound that by taking away his liberty.”
DC Alan Wilson, from the internet child abuse team at Lincolnshire Police, said: “Every time we investigate an offence our main aim is to safeguard children, to save them from harm’s way.
“Preventing offenders like Gene Lee Swallow from committing further offences goes a long way to protecting our communities from sexual predators.”
