Church Helper Had More Than 3,000 Child Porn Images

By Tony Gardner
Yorkshire Evening Post
April 6, 2015

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/church-helper-had-more-than-3-000-child-porn-images-1-7192404

A CHURCH helper had more than 3,000 vile images of children being sexually abused on computers at his West Yorkshire home, a court heard.

A court heard the discovery was made after computer equipment was seized from Nigel Holleran’s home on Walton Lane, Sandal, Wakefield, in May last year.

Leeds Crown Court was told Holleran contacted police officers and told them he “wanted to get things of his chest”.

He then admitted that he had been viewing abusive images of children for around five years.

Holleran, 57, later told a probation officer that he believed the children in the images, some as young as nine, had consented to the abuse they were being subjected to and had been paid for appearing in the images.

A judge said his attitude towards his offending was of “great concern.”

Simon Clegg, prosecuting, said some of the images featured children as young as nine being raped. He had also used file sharing platforms, enabling other people to access the illegal material he had downloaded.

Holleran pleaded guilty to six offences of possession of indecent images of children.

The prosecutor said: “He said that he initially began looking at the images and movies out of curiosity to see what bad there was in the world.

“He said he grew complacent and did not realise how serious it was until it was too late.”

Christopher Moran, mitigating, said Holleran had assisted his local church for many years and was supported in court by his friends from the church.

The court heard he also had the support of his wife of 30 years.

The court was handed a character reference from the parish priest who described Holleran as a “quiet personality and a gentle spirit.”

Mr Moran said Holleran was prepared to undergo treatment to prevent him offending in the future.

He was made the subject of a three year community order, during which he must take part in a sex offender treatment programme.

Judge Tom Bayliss, QC, said: “How you could possibly think that all parties involved were consenting when you were watching images of children as young as nine engaging in sexual activity is very concerning.

Those who possess images of this nature, fuel not only their perverted idea but also fuel child abuse. These are not innocent images. They are images of children being physically and sexually abused.”