October 2014
Pervert previously jailed for sex attack on vulnerable woman spared prison after downloading child abuse images
A FORMER care home worker previously jailed for a sex attack on a vulnerable woman has been spared another prison term for downloading child-abuse images.
Iain Blake, from Hastings Road in Pound Hill, was sentenced at Crawley Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday.
At an earlier hearing Blake pleaded guilty to a charge of making nine indecent photographs of children – with “making” referring to downloading the images rather than taking them himself.
The children in the photos ranged in age from 6 to 14.
The court heard Blake accessed the images on a USB dongle given to him by a former colleague.
Police discovered the photographs on May 3, 2013, when they searched the 32-year-old’s computer at his home.
Prosecutor Melanie Wotton had previously told the court: “Police accessed Mr Blake’s computer as part of the conditions of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order [SOPO] in place for a relevant previous conviction and they found there were nine images of an indecent nature.
“The images were of young people exposing parts of their genitals. The photographs were low level, there was no sexual activity or penetrative action.”
The SOPO was put in place because Blake was jailed for 18 months in October 2008 having pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a woman who was not in a position to refuse consent.
Blake targeted the victim when she was alone in her room at a care home and locked a colleague out of the building so he could launch his attack in secret.
However, the colleague found another way into the building and caught Blake, who was a part-time solider with the Territorial Army at the time, carrying out a sex act on the middle-aged woman who was blind and had profound learning difficulties.
The judge who sentenced Blake for that crime ordered the SOPO, meaning officers maintain contact with the defendant and he cannot be employed in a role which involves him being alone with vulnerable women.
While admitting he did download the photographs Blake said he did so unwittingly.
Jill Joyce, defending, claimed at an earlier hearing that Blake “immediately” tried to delete the images.
She said: “My client was bought a computer in April 2013 and shortly after police requested to look at the contents on it. He willingly allowed them to search the computer.
“Previously, while working at Poundland, Mr Blake had been given a memory stick and when downloading items from it onto his computer, these images appeared. He immediately made attempts to delete them and there has been no sharing of the photographs.”
Sentencing had previously been adjourned to allow mental health experts to give advice to the court on whether Blake was fit enough to serve a jail term.
While magistrates deemed the offence serious enough to impose a custodial sentence they agreed it could be suspended.
Blake was handed a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
He will also be monitored through an electronic tag for six months with a home address curfew in place between 8pm and 5am.
