Paedophile from Leeds spent 15 years downloading 'horrendous' child abuse videos

Mechanic Thomas Armstrong was finally arrested after intelligence intercepted a Dropbox account to which the vile footage had been uploaded. Under the name "Ben Dover", it was linked to an address in Otley.

Officers attended the address, arrested 35-year-old Armstrong and seized a number of internet-savvy devices. They later found more than 1,400 files stored, the majority being videos. This included 635 category A files - depicting the most serious child abuse. There were also 206 category B, 607 category C and an extreme pornographic image depicting sexual activity involving an animal.

It was found that Armstrong had been downloading the videos and photos between 2007 and 2022, with prosecutor Harry Crowson telling Leeds Crown Court there had been several spikes in activity, most notably in 2018 and in 2022, just before he was arrested.

Armstrong gave a no-comment police interview, but "made it clear his wife had nothing to do with it", Mr Crowson said. He has no previous convictions. He admitted three counts of making indecent images and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image.

Mitigating, Jessica Randall conceded the custody threshold had been crossed but said he would not receive any help while in jail. She added: "He would have little or no access to courses while in custody. He would also be exposed to far more sophisticated paedophiles while in the prison environment."

She said he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and was remorseful. She also said he had been seeing a therapist to tackle his problems.

Judge Tahir Khan KC called the material Armstrong had been viewing as "horrendous" but agreed he would not receive help behind bars. Instead, he gave him a 20-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, 35 rehabilitation days and 200 hours of unpaid work.

He was put on the sex offender register for 10 years and given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to curb his internet use.