By Peter Richardson
Burton Mail
November 3, 2010
http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/Vicer-convicted-of-downloading-child-porn.htm
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| Rev Dominic Stone |
A VICAR is facing jail after being convicted of downloading hundreds of child porn images from the internet.
The Reverend Dominic Stone trawled the net with searches for indecent pictures of kiddies in between using his computer for church work, jurors ruled.
As well as searching for "Star of Bethlehem" and the hymn "Be Still" on his computer, Stone was also looking up " p**** [explicit word for female genitals], tiny and young", Stafford Crown Court heard.
When police seized the vicar's computer and examined it, they found hundreds of indecent images of children, some at the most serious levels four and five, said Miss Michelle Heeley, prosecuting.
Stone confessed to having an interest in teen pornography, but denied being the person who downloaded the illegal images.
Stone, 47, the Vicar of Marchington, near Uttoxeter, denied 16 charges of making indecent images of children between January 6 and January 9 last year, but was found guilty by the jury today. (Wed, Nov 3) Judge Mark Eades remanded him for sentencing next month, but warned Stone the fact he was getting bail was no indication of the likely punishment.
Sentencing guidelines mean the vicar could be jailed for up to a year. The judge also ordered Stone to register with the police as a sex offender.
Gavin Drake, spokesman for the Diocese of Lichfield, said Stone had been suspended from all church duties since he was charged with the offences in January last year and said that suspension would continue until Stone was sentenced. The action the Church may take against him would depend on the severity of the punishment imposed by the judge.
Miss Heeley told the jury the 16 charges were specimens, to avoid having around 600 individual counts on the indictment.
Stone did not dispute the images were downloaded on January 7 and 8 last year to the vicar's computer and that they were indecent.
Stone was the only person using his computer for church work and on January 7, there was a search for the hymn "Be Still". Just 16 minutes later the first indecent image was downloaded.
The next day, following searches for "p**** [explicit word for female genitals], tiny and young", there were searches for "Star of Bethlehem" and "Church Leigh", where Stone had a meeting.
Stone maintained he was at a mums and toddlers meeting when images were accessed and gave a number of explanations for the images being on his computer - that other people had access to the vicarage, his computer had a virus or had been hacked in to wirelessly.
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