Paedophile jailed for 8,000 child sex images

Neil Bowers, 50, was a “loner” who told police he was sexually attracted to girls in their young teens, but even younger children were featured in many of the files he downloaded, Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday.

He pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to 13 charges related to explicit material.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told him: “Some of the children in these images and movies were very young indeed, and that is an aggravating feature.

“You downloaded these and saved them for your own sexual gratification because, undoubtedly, you have a sexual interest in children and, by doing so, you contributed to their misery and degradation.”

Bowers, of Bradley Carr Terrace, South Elmsall, near Pontefract, came under suspicion after he visited a child abuse file-sharing website being monitored by an unnamed law enforcement agency. Officers from that agency informed West Yorkshire Police, who searched his home and confiscated computing equipment in October 2009.

Almost 3,000 of the files were classed as being at level four or level five – the most serious categories of child sex abuse material.

Police also found extreme images and movies showing adults engaged in sex acts with animals.

The court heard there was no evidence to suggest that he had distributed the offensive material to others.

Dc Claire Forder, of West Yorkshire Police’s abusive images unit, said: “This case proves we are robustly investigating people who commit these serious offences against children.

“This is one of the most serious cases, considering the amounts of level four and level five images and movies that Bowers had for his own sexual gratification.”