Oxfordshire man shared child sex abuse images on Telegram

Geoffrey Lowe, 67, also said that his colleagues had been furloughed and he was under ‘extreme pressure’ at work.

Police caught the Marcham man after a tip-off about a Twitter account linked to Lowe sharing an indecent image of a child to the social media site in October 2021.

A ‘direct message’ sent from the account said the user was ‘into boys of between 10 and 15 and possibly younger’.

Lowe’s home was searched in March 2022 and his devices were seized. In total, he was found to have 58 images in the worst category, A, 29 in category B and 26 in category C.

The analysis of the digital devices showed he had also exchanged lewd messages and child sex abuse material with a fellow pervert on the heavily-encrypted Telegram app.

His paedophile pen-pal was named in court as ‘Ryan Davy’, who it was suspected was based in the States. Their conversation, which began on Telegram, had moved onto WhatsApp.

Arrested by the police, he denied having a sexual interest in children despite having received two cautions in the past for possession of indecent images of under-18s.

He said he had ‘not seen anyone’ during lockdown. A number of his work colleagues had been furloughed and, as a result, he was under ‘extreme pressure and had been very low’.

Mitigating, Bethan Chichester described Lowe as a ‘damaged man’, stemming from his childhood, who was only now coming to terms with ‘everything that has happened to him’.

He had begun talking to ‘Ryan Davy’ online and got drawn into the sick offending.

The barrister said that ‘after some time he realised these children were being abused’ and stopped looking at the images as a result.

Judge Ian Pringle KC replied: “When did he get his Damascus moment?” It was ‘obvious’ the people in the images were children being told what to do at an age when they were not old enough to know the significance of what they were doing, the judge added.

Since his moment of realisation he had paid for counselling privately, the court heard.

Sentencing, Judge Pringle said he had come to the conclusion ‘after much consideration’ that he could suspend the two year prison sentence for two years.

“I think there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in your case because way before these matters came to light you had ceased the contact you had with the [individual in the] United States to whom the distribution was solely made. In other words, this is not mass distribution,” he said.

“Secondly, you had already engaged a psychologist and have tried to get to the bottom of why you offend in this way and you recognise now the harm that you do to children by providing a market for these sort of images.”

Lowe, of Parkside, Marcham, who pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to possession and distribution of indecent images of children and possession of extreme bestiality pornography, must complete probation programmes and a mental health treatment requirement.

He will be on the sex offender register for a decade and must abide by a 10 year sexual harm prevention order.  

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