Man had sexual images of children young as three
Joshua Lowden was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court
- Published
A man who had sexual images of children as young as three years old on his computer has been given a suspended prison sentence.
Joshua Lowden, 29 and from South Shields, was caught with a haul of illegal images after a picture was uploaded by his account on the social media site Discord, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
He had dozens of pictures and videos on his computer, including 15 images in the most serious category, prosecutor Gabrielle Wilks said.
Lowden was jailed for six months, suspended for two years, after admitting four counts of possessing indecent images of children.
Ms Wilks said police went to Lowden's home in April 2022 after being informed of the image on Discord.
She said Lowden, of Leith Court, admitted having the images in his police interview.
Ms Wilks said it had taken a long time for the case to reach court as there was an 18-month backlog in forensic digital policing services which had searched Lowden's computer and portable hard drive.
'Horrific practice'
As well as the 15 category A images, there were also 16 in category B and 33 in category C, with a further 15,593 "uncharacterised images", Ms Wilks said.
She said the ages of children in the images ranged from three to 16 years old.
Judge Nathan Adams said Lowden claimed he had been "persuaded" to download the images after meeting someone online, but denied having any sexual interest in children.
The judge said Lowden's offending was still "significantly concerning" and needed to "be addressed", although he accepted the defendant had shown "genuine remorse" and a "real understanding" of the impact of his crime.
"Anyone who downloads images of this sort is supporting the horrific practice of those who create these videos," Judge Adams said.
Lowden must also sign the sex offenders' register for five years and was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order strictly controlling his usage of the internet and internet-capable devices.
Follow BBC North East on X (formerly Twitter), external, Facebook, external and Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.