A chemistry student’s mum handed police the laptop on which detectives later found vile child sex abuse videos.
William Cope, 20, had already admitted looking at the illegal material – telling police officers when they raided his home: “It’s me.” Prosecutor Christopher Pembridge told Oxford Crown Court that Cope’s mother had come to the police station the day after her son’s arrest in August last year and handed over an HP laptop. She had been acting on the instructions of her son, then aged 19.
Found on the computer were 19 images and videos in category A, including a 50 minute film showing the abuse of nine boys and ‘at least’ 27 girls. In another of the images a girl estimated to be two or three was being raped by an older man. Cope also had 26 images and videos in category B and 30 pictures in category C. The material was inaccessible and it could not be viewed without specialist police software. TOR software had been downloaded to the computer. The VPN network is commonly used to hide internet history.
Mitigating, Mike Goold asked the judge to bear in mind his client’s youth, his remorse, the fact he had no previous convictions and his cooperation with the police investigation. He was a chemistry student and also working as a chef. The images were inaccessible, meaning the images and videos had been viewed but not saved by Cope in an easy-to find folder, the court heard. Cope, of Steventon, Abingdon, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to three counts of making indecent images of children.
Recorder John Hardy QC imposed a three year community order as a direct alternative to a prison sentence. “It mystifies people in court, Mr Cope, to see somebody like you before the court,” the judge said. “An otherwise thoroughly decent person who’s fallen into this depraved, ghastly and revolting kind of activity as viewing these images. “But you are a young man. I take Mr Goold’s point that turning 18 doesn’t mean you fall off a cliff edge.”
The three year community order would allow Cope to complete the Horizon sex offender rehabilitation programme. He must also pay £425 in costs to the Crown Prosecution Service. The defendant will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years, aimed at limiting his access to the internet. He must register as a sex offender for the same period of time. Recorder Hardy praised Cope’s mother for handing in the laptop to the police: “That must have been very, very difficult for her to do. But it was the right thing to do.”
