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	Church Elder Admits Child Porn Charge Daily Post December 20, 2008 http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2008/12/20/church-elder-admits-child-porn-charge-55578-22516635/ A CHURCH elder said to be addicted to porn took his laptop to a police station and confessed that he had been downloading child images. Bevan Andrew Waller, 32, was found to have 138 images of children aged between two and 16 years of age. Two of them were found to be of the most serious category available. Waller of Windermere Road, Wrexham, admitted 10 charges of making indecent images, but escaped an immediate prison sentence. The judge, Mr Recorder Nic Parry, said that he had been persuaded that it would be to the greater good of the public for the defendant to be helped. Waller received 51 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years and he must register with the police as a sex offender. He must attend an intensive community programme to address his problems and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) was also made which banned him from downloading child images off the internet. Defending barrister James Cullen said that his client accepted that his behaviour was abhorrent and he did not wish to make any excuses. He had lost his job, his 10-year marriage had failed as a result of his behaviour and he was prevented from having contact with his children. The defendant had been a church elder, was of previous good character and he urged a sentence to help him address pornography addiction. The judge told Waller that as a father himself, he would know how important it was to protect children from the psychological damage and the behavioural affects of abuse. “I bear very much in mind that this is a personal tragedy for you,” said the judge. Such a case inevitably attracted a custodial sentence but he had been persuaded that it was in the public interest to suspend the sentence which would enable him to attend an extremely intensive community programme to address his sexual behaviour. Prosecutor Karen Mullin said last January the defendant attended Wrexham police station with his laptop and as a result of what he told an officer he was arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. His then home was searched, computer equipment seized and he refused to answer questions until the computer had been examined. But he said he had an interest in adult pornography and that he had searched for material relating to child sex.
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