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KEY POINTS

  • Judge considered "fatalistic attitude" of defendant who thought he "was going to die".
  • Police raided Terence Patrick Corcoran's Scarborough home after tracing his suspicious internet activity.
  • A hard drive with more images had been wiped before police could analyse it.

Despite possession of more than 11,000 indecent images of children, a man from Scarborough has been spared from jail.

Terence Patrick Corcoran, 48, collected thousands of images of children, including some as young as young as six.

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According to Scarborough News, Corcoran, a former financial services director, downloaded a total of 11,236 images.

They were found after police raided his home seized two laptops and an iPad.

Appearing in York Crown Court on Friday 10 November, he sat silently in the dock for much of the sentencing.

Prosecutor Rob Galley explained how the vast majority of the images were rated as a Category C, which are the least serious. However, police also found 235 Category A images, the worst kind of child pornography.

Meanwhile, there were also 140 Category B images. These along with the other 11,000 were all downloaded between May 2011 and December 2012.

Police were first alerted to Corcoran after tracing suspicious internet activity. After carrying out the raid, authorities believed that more images were stored on an external hard drive, but this had been wiped before police were able to analyse it.

His barrister, Silis Reid, said that Corcoran had underwent serious heart surgery at the time, which included 11 separate operations. The operations which took place between 2010 and 2014, led Corcoran to believe that he was going to die. He had run a "very-successful" financial-services business before his arrest forced him to abandon it.

Reid revealed that his client was undergoing counselling to help "to ensure this (offence) doesn't happen again in the home".

Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said that there were "plain indications" that Corcoran had searched for the images deliberately and had looked for pictures that depicted children in "visible pain."

However, Stubbs took into consideration that counselling was already taking place as well as the serious health issues that had created a "fatalistic attitude."

Stubbs told Corcoran: "I am satisfied that there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, although it is plain that there is still some work to be done with you and your attitude."

He was handed a four-month prison sentence which was suspended for two years as well as an order to sign onto the sex-offenders' register for seven years.

UK crime