A PENSIONER protested his innocence when more than 10,000 indecent images of children were found on his computer devices by police, a court heard.

But Philip Nadin, 68, is now starting a 17-month prison sentence after a late change of plea for downloading what were described as, “utterly repellent” images, many portraying the abuse of visibly distressed young children.

Durham Crown Court heard that among the downloaded material found by police after examining a seized computer and tower, with memory stick, was what Judge James Adkin said appeared to be, “instructions for paedophile rape”.

Victoria Lamballe, prosecuting, said police visited Nadin’s home in Stafford Place, Peterlee, and removed the devices on January 9, 2019.

He was interviewed before full investigation into their contents was carried out and admitted they belonged to him, but he denied any involvement in any offences, saying he had not knowingly downloaded images.

Nadin claimed he received a ‘pop-up’ from someone purporting to be a Canadian policeman asking if he was interested in child abuse images and occasionally such images would appear, while he also said he had been previously been ‘hacked’ by unknown people.

Miss Lamballe said on examination it was found they contained 10,060 indecent child images, 943 in the most serious category, of which 204 were moving videos.

The victims featured included a new-born child, while one young female appeared to have been drugged prior to being abused.

She said one gave advice about abusing children.

Miss Lamballe said Nadin, “persisted with his lies about hackers”, leading to other members of his family being interviewed, while he also hinted that friends of his son may be responsible, claiming he was, “shocked and baffled” how the images were present on the devices.

He denied three counts of making indecent images of children at a plea hearing in March, with a trial scheduled to start this week.

But appearing at the court on Tuesday, his counsel, Jane Waugh, asked if the charges could be put to him again, and Nadin changed his pleas to guilty.

She said he is of previous good character and had been “in self-denial” but has now come to terms with his actions, accepting he needs help.

Describing the collection of such images as, “utterly repellent”, Judge Adkin told Nadin: “You and individuals like you provide the market for people who film real children and abuse them.”

Jailing him, the judge referred to a probation assessment that he poses a “high risk” of future offending.

Nadin was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and registration as a sex offender, both for ten years.

 

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