Paedophile Leeds pensioner caught with baby-abuse images denies sexual interest in children

Police were alerted that the sickening images were available to share online, which were traced the address of Graham Brown. Officers attend his home address in March 2022, Leeds Crown Court heard.

They later seized hard drives and laptops and after forensic examination, found 59 category A images - the most serious kind - along with 44 category B and 30 category C. They also found that he had been searching out the illegal images, which involved babies as young as one being abused. They also found a story on his devices about the sex abuse of a child.

They found software on his devices to permanently delete data and destroy content, which prosecutor Abigail Langford suggested could have been used to disguise his activities.

He was not interviewed by police until November 8 last year, in which the 75-year-old gave no comments. Brown, of Greenfield Rise, Kippax, has no previous convictions. He admitted three counts of making indecent images.

Mitigating, Ashleigh Heyworth said there had been no further offending since then. She said he accepts the prosecution’s case and that he had started offending around the time of the pandemic. She said his wife had also passed away.

However, he claims he had no sexual attraction to the images, but did “not seek to minimise” his actions. He also claimed there was nothing sinister about the deleting software, saying it was recommended by a friend to avoid any banking information falling into the wrong hands.

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Miss Heyworth said that Brown had also completed the sex offender programme, Safer Lives, off his own back.

Judge Tahir Khan KC told Brown: “It’s clear to me that you are deeply sorry for what you did. Any offence of this type is regarded seriously by the courts, but it seems to me that punishment in the community is appropriate.”

He gave him a three-year community order, gave him rehabilitation days with probation, and gave him a five-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use.