Man convicted of having child abuse images for a second time avoids jail yet again

A man convicted of possessing of child abuse images for a second time has avoided a custodial sentence yet again.

Police raided to Thomas Copeland’s home on January 14 2022 after receiving intelligence about the use of a Mega cloud storage account for illegal purposes.

After his devices were seized, a search of the cloud account revealed 183 category A images and 1,255 category B videos, 309 category B images and 361 category B videos and 1,305 category C images and 218 category C videos. The children were as young as six.

There were also seven prohibited images and four extreme pornography videos. The court heard thousands of other images and videos were uncategorised.

Copeland was convicted of 15 offences of making indecent images or pseudo images in January 2013 and one of possession indecent images or pseudo images of a child. On that occasion, he got a community order at Teesside Crown Court.

Now the 41-year-old, of Portobello Way, Birtley. Gateshead, he has admitted three counts of making indecent images, one of possessing prohibited images and one of possessing extreme pornography. He was sentenced to 22 months suspended for two years with a £100 fine and £300 costs. He will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for ten years and has to sign the sex offenders register.

Judge Sarah Mallett told him: “The children you watched are real children who are being raped and sexually abused. I don’t suppose the fact it’s not you that’s doing it makes an awful lot of difference to what they are experiencing when those images are being recorded.”