Brighton man jailed for having child porn

A Brighton man is today starting a two-year prison sentence for making and having indecent images of children.

Charles Cawley, 59, of Lennox Street, was also convicted of trying to pervert the course of justice.

Cawley was sentenced today (Wednesday 14 December) at Lewes Crown Court after pleading guilty to the perverting the course of justice yesterday.

He had previously pleaded guilty at a hearing in July to ten offences of making indecent images of children, four separate offences of having such images and one offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He was jailed for 15 months for the indecent image offences and nine months for perverting the course of justice.

The sentences will run consecutively, making two years in total.

He was also made subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, restricting his access to children and computers.

He will be required to be a registered sex offender for ten years when he is released from prison.

The indecent image offences came to light in September 2010.

Detectives from the Sussex Police Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT) arrested Cawley on suspicion of trying to influence witnesses in a trial he was facing for a previous set of indecent image offences.

Officers then found a laptop at his address which contained some 1,000 video and still images showing a range of the most serious child abuse.

These, and the perversion of the course of justice offence, were the subject of the latest charges.

There was no evidence of actual offending with children by Cawley, direct or online.

Cawley was sentenced in November last year for the previous offences to one year in prison.

Detective Constable Chris Smith, of POLIT, said: “Cawley was an habitual offender, accessing images of some of the most appalling scenes of child abuse even while awaiting his first trial, and tried to pressure witnesses against him to back down.

“We were impressed by the readiness of the four witnesses to talk to us and by their willingness to give evidence at trial this week.

“Only Cawley’s last minute guilty plea spared them that ordeal.

“The sentence sends out a message that anyone who engages in accessing child sexual abuse images can expect close law enforcement attention.

“We will treat most seriously any information about such activity.

“Anyone who has information about this or any other sexual offending can contact us in confidence at any time.”