A father-of-two has been spared jail after being sentenced for downloading nearly 1,500 child porn images including one of a child as young as four, and possessing a stun gun.

Kevin McAree, 64, of Mandeville Road in Northolt , had stored images involving penetrative activity with young girls, across two laptops, two hard drives and on CDs, after he became "bored" of retirement, a court was told.

The former civil servant was handed an 18 month jail term suspended for two years, and a six month sentence to run consecutively for possession of a stun gun, at the Old Bailey on Thursday (November 10).

At an earlier hearing he had pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of indecent images and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.

On sentencing, Judge John Bevan said: “Some of these images involved penetrative activity with young girls - one of whom was as young as four.

“I am quite sure that the custody threshold has been passed.

“However I quite accept what has happened. That having retired from a life time of decent work you were bored and started drinking again.

“Although there are category A images, they are, so far as accessibility is concerned, not great in number.”

On January 16 2016, during a raid of the Ealing pensioner's home, officers uncovered a haul of obscene images including 49 category A images, 31 of which had been deleted, 44 category B images, 30 which were remove. and 1,395 category C images, 319 of which had been deleted.

They also found a stun gun hidden in a cupboard.

Officers also found McAree had transferred "significant sums" of money from his bank account to accounts in the Philippines.

The Old Bailey
Kevin McAree from Northolt spared jail for child porn images

Prosecutor Jane Osborne said: "His internet browsing revealed he had been searching for terms that was likely to call up these indecent images, including "little pre-teen models", "Asian pre-teen models" and "young top 100".

"When he was interviewed he admitted viewing porn, saying he preferred young, slim women but said he ensured all were adults.

"He said he did much of his browsing when drunk - he denied knowing about the images on his device and was unable to say how the images got there.

"As for the stun gun he said he had got it when he was working in the Far East and had put it into his cupboard and forgotten about it."

Sarah O'Kane, defending, said: "He puts a lot of his offending down to being bored, having access to the computers he did and starting to drink again after 12 years.

"He has expressed feelings of remorse and appreciates the consequences of his offending - he has done research into the effect of this offending on both children and women who may be involved in pornography.

"He's someone who has otherwise lived a productive life both professionally and personally."

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