Summary The journalist admitted three charges of making indecent images. Courtesy: PA
(Web Desk) - A BBC journalist was given a suspended sentence after being caught with images and videos of child sexual abuse on his home computer.
Lloyd Watson, 33, from Gateshead, admitted three charges of making nine indecent images 26 videos.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Watson has used the dark web to extract the content until his home computer was seized by police in March 2016, the BBC reported. Photographs and videos were found from all three categories used by the courts to classify the gravity the child sex abuse images, including the most severe classification that includes rape, bestiality and sadism.
In his computer, a document titled ‘confessions text’ was also found in which Watson had said that he had done nothing wrong and the people who had made those images should be punished. The court heard he had no previous convictions and was seeking professional help for his behaviour and said that he wasn’t condoning his actions.
Sentencing him to nine months in prison – suspended for two years – Judge Amanda Rippon told Watson: "Every child who has been abused, you have personally abused by viewing it." Watson was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years and given a sexual harm prevention order.
In response to the situation, the BBC released a statement that said: “He will no longer be working for the BBC. His crimes were entirely unrelated to his work for us.”
