7:30pm Saturday 4th September 2010
By Neil Hunter
POLICE found a sickening stash of child pornography when they raided the home of a plumber after a tip-off from internet investigators.
Jeffrey Binks had a computer tower, digital camera, DVDs and discs taken from his house in Herbert Street, Darlington, in December 2008.
Experts discovered that he had been downloading indecent images for the previous three years and found a total of 3,337 on the equipment.
Teesside Crown Court heard that almost 230 of 59-year-old Binks's pictures and short movie clips were in the two most serious categories.
Binks admitted 17 separate charges but was spared prison when a judge ruled he would get more help for his problems in the community.
He was given a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and was ordered to attend a citizenship programme for sex offenders.
Judge David Bryant was told by Carl Swift, mitigating, that treatment is given to prisoners only if their sentence is for at least two years.
The judge said Binks's right sentence would be nine months, reduced to six for his guilty plea, and he would have to serve less than half.
He told Binks: "It would be more useful if you had that prison sentence hanging over your head so you know your position if you offend again.
"I cannot see any useful purpose will be served by you going to prison for a period which in practise will be rather less than three months."
When he was interviewed, Binks told police he knew what he was doing was wrong and illegal, and that he felt disgusted by the images.
He confessed that before his arrest, he thought he was at risk of being caught and had started to delete his internet history to hide his tracks.
The court heard that police swooped after officials from Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) had monitored a suspect website.
Mr Swift said Binks had a history of "self-destructive tendencies" and had been snubbed by neighbours after they learned of his crimes.
He urged Judge Bryant suspend the sentence, and said: "Even though he would walk out of court, he will have to live with this for the rest of his life. "He has been ostracised by his community and has been something of a target by those living near him . . . his family supports him."
Self-employed Binks admitted 16 specimen charges of making indecent images of children, and one of possessing a further 3,321 upon his arrest.
Mr Swift said Binks needed his computer to write invoices for customers, but the judge ordered that he should not have unsupervised access to one.
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