'Addicted' Fareham IT worker who downloaded 14,000 child abuse images fined £1,000

Peter Noyce, 44, of Gardner Road in Titchfield, admitted three charges of making indecent images of children.

Police found around 14,000 images of children on his computer and laptop, including those who were ‘incredibly young’.

Noyce appeared at Portsmouth Crown Court today for sentencing, but dodged prison time after making amends to tackle his addiction.

Prosecuting, Adam Slack said: ‘Downloads of indecent images were found, which resulted in a police search of his address on August 15 last year.

‘The devices had thousands of indecent images on them – he would change the names of the files and delete them when he had finished with them.

‘Almost 14,000 images and videos had been downloaded from peer-to-peer websites, which included incredibly young children.

'Search terms also showed searches specifically for images of children.’

The court heard that Noyce developed an addiction to child abuse pictures, downloading images between January and August last year.

Mitigating, Rod Hayler explained that since his arrest, the defendant has taken steps to fight his addiction, including seeing a psychosexual therapist.

He said: ‘He explained his behaviour as an addiction. Noyce doesn’t accept a sexual interest in children, and that has caused a lot of confusion for him.

‘But he takes responsibility for his behaviour and has also started to tackle his problems.’

An IT worker by trade, Noyce resigned from his job after being arrested by police, and is now making a living through stock market trading.

He has already been placed on the sex offender register, and his electronic devices will be destroyed.

Addressing Noyce, judge Roger Hetherington told the defendant that this was a ‘serious’ offence.

He said: ‘The bulk of the images are category C but there were some of category A including moving images involving very young children and babies.

‘You have taken steps to address the reasons why you became addicted to this material and the cycle of self-disgust. You have also completed the Lucy Faithfull Foundation course.’

Noyce was sentenced to a two-year community order with 30 days of rehabilitation activities.

He was also fined £1,000 and made to pay costs of £340.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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