‘Isolated and lonely’ Leeds pervert caught with more than 1,000 indecent images

Thirty-nine-year-old David Pearce was visited by police at his home on Devonshire Gardens in Woodhouse after being tipped off that a device from that address was being used to download the illegal images.

Leeds Crown Court was told by prosecutor Andrew Pickin that officers seized a Samsung phone from Pearce during the raid.

Following analysis, they found 10 Category A pics – the most serious – and 999 deemed to be Category C.

They also found six illegal pseudo-photographs of children, meaning they were computer-generated images.

The court was told that officers were not able to determine how long Pearce had been downloading the images for, but found he had carried out systematic searches for them, and had organised them into folders.

However, it was determined he had stopped around November 2020.

Peace has no previous convictions.

In mitigation, Jane Cooper said had been “extremely frank and co-operative” with the police during his interview.

She said he was a carer for his father, who has muscular dystrophy, and his spare time is taken up by attending to him.

She said: “He is lonely, he can’t go out and socialise much because his life is taken up by looking after his dad.

"This is someone who is socially isolated.

"His father does not know about these proceedings, telling him would only upset him.”

She added: “There’s no minimisation, he has accepted what he has done and recognised straight away the harm he has done.

"So many offenders come before the courts with a lack of understanding, but this defendant had a clear insight.

"He had already stopped offending by the time the police came to his property.

"It’s behaviour that he clearly knew from the outset was illegal."

The judge, Recorder Andrew Latimer, gave him six months’ jail, but suspended it for 18 months.

He also gave gave him a sexual harm prevention order to limit his internet use, and was put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.