Father '˜obsessed' with pornography had child images at Portsmouth home

Ross Parker, 30, of Jellicoe Drive, Sarisbury Green, would spend hours in front of his computer after work telling his wife he was playing games.

But police who looked at his hard drive found 729 still images, of which 188 were in the most serious category.

Edward Philips, prosecuting, said 20 videos were found at Parker’s former home in Portsmouth, 15 of which were the worst type.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard the images had either been deleted or cached when viewed online.

Parker tried to blame members of his family for the images being there, the court heard.

Mr Philips said: ‘It’s clear from (his wife’s) statement the defendant was the person who had the access to the computer.

‘He was spending hours in front of that computer and not returning to bed until one or two o’clock in the morning.’

Some of the children in the images were aged as young as four.

Daniel Hewertson, defending, said: ‘He is a man who properly recognises he had much to redeem.’

He added that Parker apologised to his wife and children for his actions.

He said Parker had first seen legal pornography aged eight and was obsessed with it.

Sentencing, James Watson QC said: ‘It is clear that your wife’s suffering is a pre-eminent issue.

‘The suffering of your own children in future when they grow up to recognise and realise what their father was capable of and your conduct, it may well equal or exceed the suffering your wife now bears.

‘But in addition to those who lie within your own famil,y it’s not only those who bear suffering to your activity, as you must recognise, and is common sense. Those who are addicted to this kind of pornography involving children are simply feeding, encouraging and creating suffering of those children who around the world are abused and photographed.’

The judge sentenced him to a community order for three years, with a sexual harm prevention order for five years.

Parker must sign the sex offenders’ register and pay £400 costs. He pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing indecent images of children on April 25 in Portsmouth.

The judge ordered the computer to be destroyed.