Crawley paedophile had more than 1,000 explicit images

Ricky Kennard was tracked down by Sussex Police after uploading images to a social media platform in October 2021.

Five months later officers went to the 32-year-old’s address and arrested him.

When they knocked on his door, Kennard “delayed answering and put his iPhone into a microwave”.

But police still managed to get the images off the phone as well as other devices.

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Kennard was charged with having more than 1,000 explicit images of children, bestiality and other “extreme” porn but avoided a custodial prison sentence.

Kennard, of Lyon Close, Crawley, pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs of children and distributing indecent photographs. He also pleaded guilty to possessing extreme pornographic images of bestiality and acts involving people’s private parts.

Lewes Crown Court sitting at Brighton heard on Wednesday that Kennard’s offences “emerged from a background of abuse” from when he was six years old.

His offences went back as far 2008 when he was 17. He was caught on March 10, 2022.

Alex Leach KC, defending, said the trauma had a “stunting effect” on Kennard’s development.

Recorder John Hardy KC said that “it is very important that the general public understand that sentences are not soft sentences but are structured” in terms of rehabilitation and protecting the general public.

Sentencing, he told Kennard: “You realise from your own experience how dreadful the ordeal of the people in photos who have their childhood robbed.

“You were robbed of your childhood. Since your arrest you have submitted yourself to intense therapy. That shows mitigation because it shows you know you have a problem which needs to be addressed.

“You have strong personal mitigation which I have touched upon.”

Recorder Hardy said if he sent Kennard to prison it would be a three-year custodial sentence with no access to therapy, but this would “bring the prospect of a relapse and reoffending”.

Kennard was given an 18-month sentence suspended for two years. He has also been given a sexual harm prevention order for ten years which police say will significantly reduce his access to children, vulnerable people and his access to the internet.

He was also ordered to pay £450 costs and items which had explicit images were seized.