Tom Binns: Sheffield born comedian who appeared on IT Crowd sentenced for possessing child sex abuse pictures

Sheffield-born comedian Tom Binns has been sentenced after being caught in possession of thousands of pictures of child sex abuse.

The 53-year-old, who appeared on television shows including Channel Four sitcom The IT Crowd, and whose spoof DJ character Ivan Brackenbury was nominated for an award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007, received a suspended prison sentence at Derby Crown Court.

Binns, now living in Chesterfield, was sentenced for making and possessing thousands of child sexual abuse images, after pleading guilty last November to five counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing a prohibited image.

Binns was identified by National Crime Agency investigators after the indecent images of children were uploaded to a Google account in his name.

He was arrested by NCA officers at his Chesterfield home in November 2020. Three of his devices were seized, which forensic examination showed contained more than 9,000 images in categories A-C (A being the most severe).

Binns had asked a family friend to sell several other devices on eBay, three of which contained more than 25,000 additional abuse images.

When interviewed, Binns denied viewing indecent images of children online but said he had watched adult pornography.

He claimed files must have contained the images without his knowledge. Examination of his devices showed they had been downloaded across a nine-month period in 2020.

He was given a suspended 10 month prison sentence, suspended for 15 months; a 10-year sexual harm production order; and been placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

National Crime Agency operations manager Holly Triggs said: "Tom Binns deliberately collected a huge number of indecent images of children. Behind each one is an abused child who has had their wellbeing, innocence and privacy violated."

Binns said in an earlier statement to comedy news website Chortle that over two years ago, after overdosing on prescription drugs for ADHD, which induced obsessive-compulsive disorder, he downloaded and deleted adult pornography over a short period of time. Within those downloads, he believed there was child pornography he had not sought out nor wanted.

He added: "I have no sexual interest in children. I have taken and passed a polygraph stating I have no sexual interest in children.

"I am bitterly upset at the hurt this has caused my family, for which I take full responsibility."