Pervert caught with indecent images of children after police raid on South Yorkshire home
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Sheffield Crown Court heard on January 4 how Matthew Hancock, aged 39, of Wilcox Green, Wingfield, Rotherham, was caught with the images after police raided his home after a tip-off.
Louise Reevell, prosecuting, said: “On April 9, 2019, a warrant was executed in respect of information police had received about the possibility of indecent images of children, and the defendant, as a result, was arrested.”
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Hide AdPolice seized two computer hard drives and a Samsung Galaxy device and found 48 category A images, 42 category B images and 52 category C images across all three devices with category A being the most serious.
Hancock claimed he had transferred the images to hard drives because he had wanted to learn how to delete them and claimed he had submitted relevant search terms as part of research. He also denied having gained any sexual gratfication from the images.
But Hancock, who has previous convictions for driving offences, pleaded guilty to two counts of making category A indecent images, two counts of making category B images and two counts of making category C images between February, 2017, and February, 2019.
Recorder Anthony Hawks told Hancock: “You had a perverted sexual interest despite your denials and the sooner you face up to a problem the better it will be for you and everyone else."
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Hide AdHe added: “You are a man with a number of personal difficulties, both of a physical and mental health nature, and I also bear in mind that punishment has already been visited upon you because you have been driven out of your home and you are having to live with your parents.”
Recorder Hawks told Hancock that by possessing these images he was contributing to a market, to the creation of such pictures and to the destruction of children’s lives.
Hancock was sentenced to a two year community order with a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement. He was made subject to the Sex Offender Register and to a Sexual Ham Prevention Order for five years.
