South Yorkshire pervert with indecent images of youngsters has jail sentence hanging over his head

Sheffield Crown Court heard on December 31 how Russell Tomlinson, aged 41, of Oates Close, near Bradgate, Rotherham, was caught by police with category A, B and C images in January, last year, involving female youngsters aged between three and 16-years-old, with category A being the most serious.

Beverley Wright, prosecuting, said: “There was a search warrant issued and taken to the defendant’s home address at Oates Close, in Rotherham, on January 7.”

Ms Wright added Tomlinson was not present but a laptop was taken containing eight category A moving images of females aged between three and 16-years-old, four category B moving images with females aged between seven and 16-years-old, and seven category C moving images and one still image of females aged between eight and 15-years-old.

Tomlinson told police he had searched for images and downloaded them but claimed he had done so to find out why people abuse children.

The defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images relating to the category A and category B images from July, 2020, and the category C images from October, 2020.

David Watts, defending, said Tomlinson has nothing like this kind of offending on his record and the number of images involved is quite small.

Judge Michael Slater told Tomlinson each image tells a story of misery for each child and as long as people like the defendant keep viewing such images there will be a demand for others to put youngsters in this situation to make a profit.

He added: “You are well-placed in both motivation and circumstances to benefit from intervention from the probation service coupled with a determinate sentence hanging over your head which will be for a period of two years.”

Judge Slater sentenced Tomlinson to 10 months of custody suspended for two years with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 40 days alongside a course relating to the nature of his offending.

Tomlinson was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.