BBC journalist sentenced for making and possessing child sexual abuse images

A BBC journalist has been given a suspended prison sentence after he was caught with 26 videos and nine images of child sex abuse on his home computer.

Thirty-three-year-old Lloyd Watson from Gateshead worked for the BBC News website in Newcastle but has now been dismissed.

Watson admitted three charges of making indecent images when he appeared at North Tyneside Magistrates' Court.

According to a BBC report, one of the videos showed abuse involving a young girl in distress. The report also added that Newcastle Crown Court heard Watson had used the dark web to obtain the material until his home computer was seized by police in March 2016. He was jailed for nine months and suspended for two years.

Michael Bunch, prosecuting, told the court that the photographs and videos were found from all three categories – rape, bestiality and sadism – to classify the seriousness of offences.

However, in a document found on his computer titled "confessions text", Watson wrote that he had done nothing wrong and it was the people who had made such images who should be arrested.

He also said that he was "not condoning it or helping it".

Judge Amanda Rippon while sentencing him said, "Every child who has been abused, you have personally abused by viewing it."

Watson was placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and given a sexual harm prevention order for 15 years.

"He will no longer be working for the BBC. His crimes were entirely unrelated to his work for us," the BBC said.