Jail for ex-Cas rugby player who had vast store of child porn

Philip Eden was jailed for 16 months by a judge who described the amount of illegal images as “enormous”.

Eden, who played for Wakefield Trinity and Castleford in the 1980s and 1990s, had more than 4,000 disturbing images and films at levels four and five, the two most serious categories of offending.

Leeds Crown Court heard most of those images featured children under the age of ten being sexually abused. Some were less than a year old.

Eden, 49, of Geary Drive, Alverthorpe, Wakefield, pleaded guilty to 21 charges of possession of indecent photographs of children.

The court heard Eden, who has worked as a technical housing officer with Wakefield District Housing for 23 years, was arrested after police executed a search warrant at his home on December 6 last year. Computers were taken from his home and the images discovered.

Christopher Morton, mitigating, said Eden carried out the offences while he was suffering from depression following the breakdown of the relationship with his partner.

Judge Sally Cahill, QC, told Eden: “The amount of pornography in relation to children in your possession I view as being enormous.”

After the hearing, Det Con John Higgins, of West Yorkshire Police’s abusive images unit, said: “Philip Eden had a vast collection of images depicting children being abused.”