Corby man caught with indecent images of children as young as four

Steven Newlands, 29, of Rowlett Road, appeared before Northampton Crown Court on Friday (January 5) after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images.

The court heard how the National Crime Agency began investigating a chat room account called “scallylvr1”, used by Newlands, in November 2015.

Newlands, who lived in Liverpool having stopped being a teacher six months prior, asked the chat room if there were “any active peds [paedophiles]”.

A search warrant was later executed at his house in Corby when he moved to the town, where a laptop and two phones were seized.

Those devices were found to contain 15 category A images, 35 category B images and 142 category C images, category A being the most vile.

Some images involved children as young as four-years-old.

Prosecuting, Abigail Hill said: “The defendant was actively searching a variety of mediums for the material.

“He expressed interest in children as young as 0+.”

Newlands denied possessing any images when questioned and said he was in fact interested in paedophiles themselves.

Mrs Hill added: “He said it was not the children he was interested in, but the men who were interested in those videos.”

Mitigating, Davide Corbino said Newlands was in a dark place having been bullied and was depressed but that he felt “shamed” by his actions.

He said: “He has the feeling of shame and regret for what he has done.

“He discussed [with me] hating himself and struggling to live with what he has done.”

The court was also told that Newlands gained employment at an unnamed school in Wellingborough, although he was not working there when he downloaded the images.

Newlands was due to be sentenced by Her Honour Judge Lucking on Friday, but the case was put back because facts over his retention of the material while he was working there were not clear.

Newlands was granted bail to next appear at Northampton Crown Court on January 19.