Cowgate teenager caught with indecent images of children is spared prison
Leon Dunlavy, of Cowgate, was 17 at the time of the indecent images offences and said he was disgusted by some of the material depicting younger children
by Rob Kennedy · ChronicleLiveA teenager caught with indecent images of children has been spared prison.
Leon Dunlavy was arrested on August 22 last year following the police receiving intelligence about what he had been doing. When quizzed, he said he may have seen indecent images through pop-ups redirecting him but said he would click off them.
Newcastle Crown Court heard he also said he was on Discord and that people "may have sent him links to indecent images but they were not at his request and he didn't save them". His devices were then checked and on one phone there was no illegal material but there was evidence of him using search terms associated people searching for child abuse images.
On a second phone, two of the most serious, category A images and one category C image was found. On a cloud storage device, 45 category A videos, 27 category B videos and 12 category C videos were discovered, along with two extreme pornography videos featuring bestiality. The ages of the children were estimated to be between four and 14.
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Dunlavy, 17 at the time of the offences and now 19, of Chestnut Avenue, Cowgate, Newcastle, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornography. He said he was only interested in the images of older teens and was disgusted by some of the material showing younger children.
He was sentenced to a two year community order with 120 hours unpaid work. He will also have to sign the sex offenders register for five years and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order.
Jonathan Cousins, defending, said: "This is a very young man who leads a very sheltered life, is heavily reliant on the support of his family, considerably isolated and not a mature offender."
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