Police caught Sheffield porn addict from Stannington with indecent images of children on his mobile phone

Sheffield Crown Court heard on December 9 how Michael Lever, aged 53, of Deer Park Road, Stannington, Sheffield, was caught by police with 25 indecent images of children on his mobile phone.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC told Lever: “You told the police you habitually accessed pornography for approximately two hours per evening and during the course of your searching you accessed this material.”

Lydia Caroll, prosecuting, said police originally attended Lever’s home after receiving information that indecent images of children had been accessed from that address.

Police found seven category A, six category B and 12 category C indecent images on Lever’s mobile phone relating to offences from May 21, 2019, according to Ms Caroll, with category A being the most serious.

Lever told police he accessed pornography in the evenings and deleted searches, and that he had not specifically searched for children but sometimes they came up and if they were pop-ups he would click on them.

Lever, who has a caution for similar activity, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images relating to the category A, B and C images.

Judge Richardson told Lever: “This form of criminality is not victimless. The young girls photographed were real individuals who were being horrendously sexually abused.”

However, Judge Richardson said a pre-sentence report by the probation service put forward a strong case for Lever’s rehabilitation.

He added: “I have no doubt at all you are deeply ashamed of what you have done. It is vital you be reformed. You need to pull away from your obvious addiction to pornography.”

Judge Richardson sentenced Lever to six months of custody suspended for two years with a rehabilitation requirement, a sex-offender programme and a prohibited activity requirement preventing him from unsupervised contact with children.

Lever was also made subject to the Sex Offenders Register for five years and to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same period.

Judge Richardson warned Lever any breach or commission of another crime in the next two years will mean the suspended custodial sentence will be activated.