Jail term for possessing child porn videos

A young man is beginning a 13 month prison term after he admitted possessing child pornography videos.

Sam Hesketh was discovered with the most serious classification of material after a national police agency became aware of his online activity.

The 29-year-old, from Burra Park Road, Mid Yell, previously admitted possessing the images between 3rd May and 5th June last year.

Sentence had been deferred, but today sheriff Philip Mann said Hesketh had helped create the demand for children to be abused.

As well as the year-plus prison term, sheriff Mann also imposed a two-year extended sentence, meaning he will be on licence for 48 months following his release.

Lerwick Sheriff Court previously heard half of the 14 videos recovered belonged in Category A – the worst classification of such material.

Some of the videos showed children as young as two years old becoming victims of abuse.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said a social work report showed the background of how Hesketh had become involved in the offending.

He said Hesketh had faced difficulty in the community since the offending came to light.

“The compiler of the report has been worried about the state of his mental health because of this.”

Mr Allan added that the images were of an “extremely grave nature”, but he said they were of a more limited quantity than may have been seen in the past.

He said that Hesketh was willing to co-operate with any community-based order.

However, sheriff Philip Mann said that, while he had not seen the images, it was “immediately obvious” they were the most serious.

“Every time someone looks at this sort of material it’s an abuse of the children involved in these images and videos,” the sheriff said.

“Any interest, and interest of people like you, create demand for these types of images to be made in the first place.”