Sick Leeds student shared child-rape fantasies with online 'Club Molesters' paedophile gang
A student was arrested from his halls of residence in Leeds after sharing his sick fantasies and child-abuse images online with 25 other perverts.
Charlie Deacon had been uploading the vile content before the details were passed to West Yorkshire Police.
The 21-year-old had been living at The Foundry on Cavendish Street, Burley.
He appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week where he narrowly avoided being locked up and was given the maximum suspendible prison sentence available.
Deacon had been arrested in April last year and a phone and laptop were seized, prosecutor Oishee Dey told the court.
During his first interview he gave a “nonsense” story about sending the disgusting abuse images to a person he did not like, just to get them into trouble.
Following a forensic analysis of his devices, it was found he had shared 15 Category A images - the most serious kind.
He had 80 Category A images, 16 Category B and 11 Category C stored on the devices, depicting images and videos of children from the age of five.
In addition, Deacon was found to be part of a group calling itself “Club Molesters” that communicated online, discussing their vile interests in children.
Deacon had participated and described himself as a “MAP” - minor-attracted person. He told the 25-strong group that he had fantasies about raping a 12-year-old boy.
He was interviewed for a second time in October last year and maintained his lie about only downloading the images to send them as hate mail.
Deacon, of Bower Street, Harrogate, admitted distributing indecent images and three counts of possessing indecent images.
Mitigating, Rhianydd Clement said he was “incredibly fearful” of prison. She said he had a difficult childhood and he himself had been exploited.
She said he now had “insight” into his offending and had “genuine remorse”.
Judge Penelope Belcher acknowledged that Deacon had engaged in work to address his offending, his age and lack of previous convictions.
She gave him a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years, ordered him to enrol on the 26-session rehabilitation course, 20 days’ work with probation and 150 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.