Graham Thomas Storer (73) this week appeared before the Superior Number of the Royal Court – which only convenes for the most serious cases – after pleading guilty to the offence earlier this year.
Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, prosecuting, told the court that on 14 May 2018, after receiving intelligence, the States police had conducted a search of Storer’s St John home which is owned by his partner.
During the raid, officers seized a number of electronic devices including a Lenovo laptop which Storer admitted was his and also provided a password.
A police detective [DC Forde] later conducted an inspection of the computer, finding thousands of indecent photos and videos.
The following day, Storer was arrested and, according to Advocate Pedley, said: ‘All the stuff is on my laptop, [my partner] is totally innocent in all of this.’
During interview, Storer said that he had been viewing pornographic images for up to five years and had gradually become interested in younger boys – aged between ten and 12 years old.
He admitted exchanging images with others through online websites – describing his crimes like ‘trainspotting’ and like a drug, saying that ‘you sort of get sucked into it’.
DC Forde found that Storer had been using a number of different methods to share his images, including through torrents, blogs, online storage and by email – to 63 different email addresses.
Advocate Giles Emmanuel, defending, said that his client had pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity, had demonstrated a significant level of co-operation with the police and was deeply ashamed of what he had done.
He also said that Storer had no previous convictions, had references of good character and was willing to work with the prison’s psychology team.
Advocate Emmanuel added that the Crown’s recommendation of 4.5 years was too high and asked for a reduced term of three years.
Delivering the court’s sentence, Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq said that there were many aggravating features surrounding Storer’s offending, including the period it had occurred over, the number of indecent images found and the fact that he had distributed them to others.
He said: ‘You do not appear to appreciate the pernicious and devastating effect that the industry which you are involved in has on your victims.’
Storer was sentenced to four years in prison, will spend five years on the sex offenders register and will have a restrictive order, limiting his use of computers, for eight years.
Jurats Paul Nicolle, Jeremy Ramsden, Rozanne Thomas, Jane Ronge and Pamela Pitman were also sitting.
