A 43-YEAR-OLD man who made 14 indecent images of children has been sentenced to 210 hours of community service.
The images created by Paul John Hart were of girls aged between six and 16, the Royal Court was told.
Two belonged to the most severe classification of category A, while one belonged to category B and the other 11 were category C images.
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, said the States police had gone to Hart’s home in July 2022 and seized 15 electronic devices. The indecent images were discovered on one of them.
Advocate Hallam recommended a sentence of 240 hours of community service.
Advocate Emma Hollywood, defending, requested a shorter community sentence order, of 210 hours.
She said Hart was a computer enthusiast who had viewed thousands of legitimate TV programmes and films on his computer over the years, and had also viewed some legal photos of a model in her 20s. But one site showed pictures of her when she was underage and offered links to similar pictures.
Advocate Hollywood said: “He fully accepts that as a consequence of his actions these images ended up on his computer.
“He was fully co-operative, and provided all passwords and PINs for the devices straight away.”
And she quoted a letter Hart had written, saying: “Please believe me when I say I am truly sorry.”
Hart suffers from incurable blood cancer, his advocate added. It is being treated with medication but that medication will become ineffective within the next seven or eight years, she said.
And she pointed out that he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, and had been assessed as at low risk of reconviction.
The Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, said the Jurats were also taking into account Hart’s lack of previous convictions in agreeing to Advocate Hollywood’s suggested sentence.
But he said that the viewing and creating of the images fuelled demand for them, leading to more children being harmed.
The Jurats sitting were Elizabeth Dulake, Steven Austin-Vautier, Gareth Hughes, Alison Opferman and Michael Entwistle.
