Braintree man, 67, 'must have known' children being abused were real

Steven Wells, 67, appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday after admitting possession of 1,593 indecent images and 11 prohibited images of children.

Some of the images involved sexual acts being performed on children as young as two years old, the court heard.

Prosecution barrister Eleanor Sheerin told the court how Stevens, of Shalford Road, Braintree, was charged with the offence after police searched his address in January last year.

Court - Steven Wells was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)

After seizing a laptop and several hard drives, police found 428 Category A images, 390 Category B images, and 775 Category C images.

A further 11 prohibited images of children were found, as well as one Category A video, two Category B videos, and one Category C video.

Mrs Sheerin said: “Further analysis of the videos show Wells was using search terms such as ‘hot youngsters’, ‘young and youngest’ and searching for teens."

Nick Bonehill, mitigating, said “issues throughout Wells’s adult life” had led to the offending.

He added: “Having retired this week, he is now before the courts.

“It is of huge regret to him that he has behaved in this way.

“He is very lucky that, having opened up to his family, his he still has the support of his family and his partner is part of that.”

Addressing Wells, Recorder Hallam said the abuse suffered by children in the images and videos would have lifelong effects.

Abuse - Recorder Hallam said Steven Wells 'must have known' the children being abused in the images were real children (Image: Newsquest)

He said: “These are images of real abuse being inflicted on real children whose lives will have been blighted at the time the images were being created.

“It will no doubt have a long lasting effect on those children – you must have known that when you accessed those images, but you still accessed them, and got more and more and more.”

Wells was sentenced to one year in prison suspended for two years,  and must carry out 40 days of rehabilitation requirements and 100 hours of unpaid work.

He must also pay £150 in costs.