Hayling Island voyeur who filmed young boy dancing naked at swimming pool is sentenced

Sam Hunt’s curiousity about his own desires had seen him delve into the murky world of child abuse. He was found with a massive collection of images showcasing children aged six to 15 years being sexually abused.

The 18-year-old’s disturbing taste also saw him store an extreme pornographic image of bestiality which was found at his St Mary’s Road home in Hayling Island, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

But despite his catalogue of offending, the teenager was spared jail – with a judge saying: ‘If you were older you would have gone to prison.’

Police investigations showed that Hunt had 40 category A images, 84 category B and 347 category C images after his iPhone, iPad and laptop were seized in October 2017.

Prosecutor Fern Russell said: ‘(Hunt) was in a swimming pool changing room with a 10-year-old boy and got him to remove his towel, therefore exposing his penis before they danced around the changing room together while he filmed it.’

Defending, Gemma White, said Hunt was just 16 to 17 years old at the time of his offending and only faced custody because the lengthy criminal justice process had resulted in him facing the courts as an adult, not as a child.

‘Had he attended court before he was 18 years the sentence would have been very different,’ she said.

‘This is hugely important and to his detriment. He will be sentenced as an adult but even now  he is still young and very immature.’

Hunt admitted three charges of making indecent images of children, two counts of distributing indecent images of children, a single charge of possessing an extreme pornographic image and a count of extreme voyeurism.

Judge William Ashworth told Hunt: ‘It is clear you were downloading very intimate images of children and had been involved in chats online.

‘As part of that you then distributed a limited number of photos. It’s important you understand this perpetuates abuse of children.’

Referring to the voyeur video of the young boy, the judge said: ‘The risk is that if you share the video then his identification is on the internet forever.’

He added: ‘If you were an adult then you would be sentenced to immediate custody for these offences. But there is a different set of circumstances at play here with you not being an adult at the time (of the offences).

‘The sexual motivation of a young person has to be seen through a different lens than to someone older. An adult would face a long time in prison.’

Instead, judge Ashworth ordered Hunt to a three-year community order including 20 rehabilitation days and attendance on a sexual offences program.

Hunt was also put on the sexual offenders register for five years while a sexual harm prevention order was also made for the same period of time. He was also told to cough up £300 for costs.