'It was my dead brother!'

Saturday 11 January 2020

A man who tried to explain away indecent images of children on his computer by blaming his dead brother has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Guernsey Police visited Ian Roussel, 58, at his house on 7 January, when he was arrested, and his computer and iPhone were seized.

Examinations eventually uncovered 28 indecent images of children, spread across different parts of the computer and his two email accounts. Additionally, Roussel had sent 27 indecent images to another person online.

When being sentenced yesterday by Guernsey's Royal Court, he was facing 13 counts. Nine for having indecent images and videos of children, and four for distributing those images. 

Pictured: Roussel was in a relationship with someone in the Netherlands, and they sexted over email. There was evidence he had exchanged indecent images of children with this man, but he declined to answer any questions about the relationship's nature, including if they had ever met in person. 

This distribution was done from one of his email accounts, on which he took up the alter ego Alison de Blanchelande. He had an over-email relationship with a man in the Netherlands using this alter ego, and the pair had sent over 200 emails between them over several years. These emails included sexual fantasises involving young girls, and sometimes showed Roussel asking to be sent indecent images of underage children. 

In his first interview with Guernsey Police after his arrest, Roussel told an officer that they might find these emails, but tried to argue he had only been asking for the images because he wanted hard evidence his contact was a paedophile so he could report them to Dutch Police. The Court heard how Roussel commented that he "probably should have informed the police" before doing this.

After examinations had taken place, these emails were found among a mire of others including the sexual fantasies. Indecent images were found in the deleted email section of his inbox. Roussel offered no comment when asked about the other images found on the computer. 

In later interviews with Police though, he explained about his brother, who he alleged was a convicted peadophile who had moved to Latvia after serving prison time. His brother had then died while in Lativa. Roussel said that it was possible his brother had used the computer before he had left, and suggested maybe he had sent the emails asking for the indecent images, and sent the indecent images he was accused of distributing. Police investigations did reveal Roussel's brother had died in 2015 in Latvia, but it was impossible that he had been the one on the computer as the dates did not match up.

Pictured: Guernsey Police showed up at Roussel's home in January last year. He was bailed after his first interview so the High Tech Crime Unit could examine his computer. He was remanded in custody from March onwards. 

Finally, while there were no indecent images found on Roussel's phone, he was logged in to the KIK messenger app with his alter ego. He denied any knowledge of the app to the police. 

When the images Roussel had distributed were analysed, they were each put into categories of one to five, five being the worst. 18 of the images were category one, six were category two, one was category three and two were category four. 

Defence Advocate Sam Steel told the court that Roussel was a victim of sexual abuse when he was a child, but was lucky enough to have a very supportive family now. He has been married to a woman for 19 years, and said he would be leaving the island the second he was released to go and live with her in the UK. 

Roussel's mental health had deteriorated seriously since he was remanded in custody in March 2019. He had also had a rough ride in general while at Les Nicolles, including having to go to hospital after drinking water from his cell's tap, and contracting a skin condition.

Finally, the Court heard how Roussel had struggled as a devout catholic, because he was not allowed a cross in prison. 

Judge Russell Finch remarked that Roussel seemed to be living in a fantasy world, and had done himself no favours by telling "nonsense" to the police. But he said the final sentence had to take into account the relatively small number of images, and the fact the distribution was not on a large scale. 

Roussel was given two years in prison, which was dated back to his first remand in custody in March 2019 - he has been in prison since then - and he was also given a five year extended sentence, and will be closely monitored on his release. 

Pictured top: Ian Roussel.