July 2003
Child abuse images ‘is feeding abuse’
The Recorder of Birmingham yesterday spoke of how the trade in child abuse images was perpetuating the abuse of young children.
Judge Wakerley made his comments as he jailed Christopher Carne for 18 months after Carne admitted 35 charges of making indecent photos of children over a three-year period while living at an address in Jardine Road, Aston.
The judge told Carne: ‘The images you kept are as bad as I have seen.’
The city’s Crown Court heard how his secret fascination with girls as young as two was revealed when his partner stumbled on a computer file by chance.
Tracey Lloyd-Nesling said Carne’s girlfriend had been forced to use his computer when her own machine would not work.
‘She went to use his computer instead and needed to access the history folder,’ Miss Lloyd Nesling said.
‘But when she did she found an image of a ten-year-old girl in a bikini and in a flirtatious pose, with words of a sexual nature written underneath.
‘She looked at other files and found more images. Deeply disturbed, she contacted friends for advice and after a discussion, called the police. Mr Carne was arrested later that night.’
Judge Wakerley banned Carne from working with children for life and imposed a 20-month supervision order, to be activated on his release from prison.
‘There is the general public concern as to the availability of this filth,’ he said. ‘It feeds the practice of abuse of children and if there was no trade in images there would be no abuse.’
The court heard how Carne told police of his ‘interest’ in girls aged between two and ten-years-old.
Malcolm Fowler, defending, said Carne had become a ‘traumatised person’ since his arrest.
