Lib Dem aide walks free over child porn

Nathan Bale, 31, the former constituency office manager of North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson, was given a two-year community order by magistrates in Bodmin yesterday, who heard he became “fixated” with child pornography after initially accessing it out of “morbid curiosity”.

The court heard married Bale, whose wife is expecting a child in January, downloaded more than 500 images over eight years.

He was traced by police investigating a cyber attack on a cookery website, which saw 2,500 indecent images uploaded onto its server by hackers in March 2010.

Police traced images downloaded from the site to his computers and when they were examined after a raid on his home they found evidence he had tried to cover his tracks, searching online for advice on “how do I clean my C Drive?”

Chris Mitchell, defending Bale, said: “This is a situation where we have someone who began viewing these images out of morbid curiosity. He became fixated with it and continued to view the images over a period of time.”

Mr Mitchell told the court Bale, of Penfound Gardens, Bude, gained no “sexual gratification” from viewing the images and that he had already started seeking help for his behaviour. All bar 12 of the 548 images found on his computer were at Level One, the lowest level of seriousness.

Bale had held the Bude North and Stratton seat on Cornwall Council for the Liberal Democrats but resigned after his arrest.

As a councillor, he spearheaded a semi-successful campaign through Facebook to save Bude Sea Pool, a 1930s seawater swimming pool in the resort that was threatened with closure because of budget cuts.

The pool, which is filled daily with seawater by the rising tide, is popular with children.

Bale had pleaded guilty to 10 charges of making indecent images of children between 2003 and 2011.