March 2015
Paedophile who had child abuse images filmed children playing in street
A PAEDOPHILE who filmed children playing outside his west Hull house said he did it ‘to catch antisocial behaviour in his street’
Loner Trevor Harrison, 67, was caught with 2,206 indecent images of children on his computer after police in Toronto tipped off British authorities with addresses of people who had bought indecent images from a Canadian website.
When officers raided his home in Cranbourne Street, west Hull, they also found a video, shot from his house, showing children going past.
Harrison said he told his neighbours he would film children to catch them behaving antisocially after concerns among residents were raised.
Prosecutor Dale Brook told Hull Crown Court: “They found video footage showing children going past and playing around his house.
“In their own right, those images are not unlawful, but perhaps they are relevant in the context of these offences.
“He was asked if he had any particular issues with the children in the street and he replied, ‘Doesn’t everyone?’.
“It is noted there have been no recorded complaints to police about antisocial behaviour from the children or anything of that nature.”
Harrison, who has never married, lived alone.
Police seized computer equipment, including two USB sticks, a hard-drive, discs, DVDs and a tablet computer.
He pleaded guilty to five charges of possession of indecent images of children.
In total, 18,000 images were found but some of these were duplicates or could not be viewed, so he was charged in connection with the 2,206 that were accessible.
When he was arrested, he told officers he collected the images because he had an interest in photography.
In mitigation, Joanna Golding said Harrison was at a “low risk” of reoffending.
She said: “He has been in healthy relationships but I think he is just a loner.
“This camera was not solely directed to female children, it was there because there had been problems with local children.
“He is part of a local community, who decided they should watch what was going on, but he won’t be doing that anymore.
“He agreed to do it but there is no evidence of singling out young girls.”
Sentencing Harrison to a three-year community order, Judge John Dowse QC said: “The viewing of this material [the indecent images] facilitates the exploitation of these children. The explanation for what you have done is not very clear to me at all.”
Harrison was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order.
