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A 32-year-old man has been handed a suspended sentence for downloading indecent images of children.
Richard Le Lerre has been on bail since 21 November 2019, after being arrested for having indecent images of children on his phone.
Bailiwick Law Enforcement arrested Le Lerre at his home after intelligence led them to suspect he had downloaded explicit images of children. Le Lerre answered ‘no comment’ during a police interview on that day.
An iPhone was confiscated, to which Le Lerre gave the passcode. The indictment he faced was comprised of seven images found on it.
Six were category C images and one was a category A, the most explicit and severe category. Several hundred other photos were found in cloud-based storage that were described as "borderline".
Pictured: Le Lerre was sentenced in the Royal Court.
Le Lerre originally pleaded guilty to the category C images but argued the category A image did not depict someone under the age of 16.
It was ruled by the Jurats, following a trial, that it did depict a child under the age of 16 .
Advocate Sam Steel defended Le Lerre. “He understands the abhorrence of the images yet doesn’t have a sexual interest in children.
"He detached himself from the images, which he does see as a cause for concern,” said Advocate Steel.
Le Lerre’s traumatic upbringing was discussed in mitigation and Advocate Steel argued that Le Lerre had lost enough already.
“He’s lost his good character, his job, he’s lost enough without losing his liberty as well."
Pictured: The Court heard that Le Lerre’s offending happened over the period of a year.
“You appear to struggle to take responsibility for your actions,” said Jessica Roland, in the Deputy Bailiff's closing remarks.
“The children in these images are real victims - people like you exploit this.”
Le Lerre was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the category A image and three months for the six category C images, both to run concurrently and suspended for three years.
He was given three-year probation order and will feature on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.
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