Computer pervert from Leeds searched out 'death-related' child abuse images

Charles Alexander Graham Bell from Cross Green was found to have more than 370 videos and images on his computer, the majority of which were classed as Category A – the most serious.

West Yorkshire Police were notified of the illegal files being accessed from an IP address at Bell’s home on Clark Crescent in 2019.

They went to his address in April last year and arrested him, seizing a computer tower, hard drives and a USB stick.

They found the vile videos and images on two of the devices, including 178 Category A, 128 Category B and 72 Category C.

Prosecutor Ben Campbell told Leeds Crown Court there was evidence that he had searched out the explicit material.

Bell, a computer worker for a pharmaceutical company, admitted three counts of possessing illegal images but claimed it was “out of curiosity”.

Mitigating, Joseph Hudson said that Bell had no previous convictions, admitted the offences at the first opportunity in the magistrates’ court before it was sent to the crown court, and there had been no offending since then.

He asked the judge not to send him into custody and suspend the sentence.

He said: “There is work than can be done.

"It has to be accepted that this crosses the custody threshold, but it does not have to be immediate.”

Judge Neil Clark gave him six months’ jail, suspended for two years.

He told him: “You said you did it out of curiosity – I find that hard to believe.

"But there is work that can be done to prevent you acting in this way again.”

He told Bell he must complete 30 rehabilitation days, 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered him to sign the sex offenders registers for seven years.

In addition, he was also given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) which will limit his internet use, prevent him from deleting his internet history and make it easy for officers to check his devices without pre-warning.

He must also register any new internet-accessible devices.