Leeds IT worker spared custody despite sickening child-abuse images found on sharing app
No evidence he sent sick material to other perverts
A paedophile caught with child-abuse images has avoided custody, despite the vile material being found uploaded to a messaging app.
Harvey Johnson had dozens of sickening images and videos of children after police were alerted to his activities.
At Leeds Crown Court this week, the IT worker admitted three counts of making indecent images and two of possessing images between 2022 and 2024.
The 22-year-old escaped immediate custody despite the material being uploaded to KIK, the social media messaging app.
However, there was no evidence it had been shared with other perverts, which Judge Simon Batiste said would have led to immediate custody.
Officers went to Johnson’s home address in June last year, prosecutor John Hobley said.
The images found on his phone were in a hidden folder that needed identification or facial recognition to open.
They were ranked as Category C. Category A and B are the most severe kinds of images.
Mitigating, Rhianydd Clement said Johnson, of Sussex Green, Hunslet, was still young and was only a teenager when he committed the crimes.
He has since been diagnosed with autism and Ms Clement said he could be given a chance to work with probation.
The court heard that he had lost his job in IT in light of his offending.
Judge Batiste said: “I’m told there’s no evidence you distributed those images.
“Had you distributed them to the general public, an immediate custodial sentence would have been inevitable.”
He gave him a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 25 rehabilitation days with probation and 160 hours of unpaid work.
He was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to curb his internet use, and put on the sex offender register for 10 years.