April 2014
‘Inappropriate’ Facebook comments led to arrest of Newquay pervert who had indecent images of kids
A DISABLED Newquay man was caught downloading and sharing indecent images of children for the second time after making inappropriate comments about children on Facebook.
At Truro Crown Court on Friday, Roland Prowse, 45, of Higher Tower Road, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of having had the material on his computer.
Elaine Hobson, for the prosecution, said police searched Prowse’s home after receiving reports that he had been making inappropriate comments on the social networking site Facebook.
Ms Hobson said those images were not indecent ones but that Prowse had made comments saying that he had a sexual interest in children.
Police seized Prowse’s laptop computer for examination on August 6, last year. On it they found nearly 200 images of youngsters, some of which he had sent to other people by e-mail.
Ms Hobson said Prowse had been sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2011 after being convicted of a number of similar offences including the distribution of indecent images.
Ms Hobson said: “[In interview], he admitted that he had accessed child indecent photographs and furthermore that he had distributed those images.
“He was aware that he had breached his sexual offences prevention order.”
Maurice Champion, for the defence, said Prowse, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, had been disabled almost since birth.
He said Prowse accepted “that he was addicted to this sort of pornography” but said that his previous prison sentence had not given him the opportunity to get help with his problem.
Mr Champion urged the judge to suspend any sentence so that Prowse could attend an internet sex offenders’ programme.
He said: “Enable him to complete this programme; it may be the only possible chance of him countering this addiction.”
Prowse admitted 12 counts of making indecent images of children at levels one to five on the scale that police use to categorise such material, with five being the most serious.
He also pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing indecent images at the same levels and two of possessing extreme pornographic images involving animals.
He also admitted breaching a sexual offences prevention order imposed on him at Truro Crown Court.
All of the offences related to dates between January and August 2013.
Prowse was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years, ordered to complete the internet sex offenders’ programme and be under the supervision of the probation service for two years.
Judge Christopher Harvey Clark, QC, also imposed a new sexual offences prevention order to replace the previous one, which Prowse had breached, and ordered him to pay a £120 victim surcharge.
