Bridgnorth man with 'sexual interest in 11-year-old boys' spared jail for downloading indecent images of children
A paedophile who admitted to having a sexual interest in boys as young as 11 years old has been spared jail after admitting downloading and distributing indecent images of children at his Bridgnorth home.
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Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Friday that James Peter Bateman of Victoria Road had initially admitted four counts of downloading indecent images of children after his house was raided in 2022, when the 37-year-old was caught twice more with further images on his devices and "had moved onto distributing" images while on bail.
Ms Emily Andrew prosecuting said Bateman was first arrested in June 2022 after an investigation into extreme images led officers to his Bridgnorth home.
There they found images and videos on Bateman's mobile phone that included nine of the most serious category-A images, 33 category-B images and 15-Category C images
Some of the images were of babies, while others contained images of children “physically in pain”, Ms Andrew said.
Bateman was also found in possession of one image of extreme pornography featuring sexual acts with an animal.
