Judge’s stern words to Northampton paedophile found with more than 1,000 images as he suspends prison sentence

The 58-year-old offender denied having any sexual interest in children
Northampton Crown Court.Northampton Crown Court.
Northampton Crown Court.

A judge issued stern words to a Northampton paedophile, who was found with more than 1,000 indecent images of children on his computer, as he suspended a prison term.

Russell Cave, of Lewis Road, Dallington appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Friday (November 12) faced with three charges of making indecent photographs and videos of children and one count of possessing extreme pornographic images.

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The 58-year-old was found to have downloaded images, which constitutes ‘making’, between June 2016 and June 2018, but was not interviewed by police until March of this year.

The court heard that during the police interview Cave did not give a frank account as he claimed he downloaded a folder that contained the images, looked at 15 and then deleted them.

He also denied having any sexual interest in children, which the judge - Mr Recorder William Davis - told the court he did not accept.

Mr Recorder Davis told Cave who was in the dock: “Babies are being subject to rape somewhere in the world.

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“There are children in the hands of those who are willing to sexually assault them and record it so people like you can view material like that.

“So long as there are people who want to access that material it will continue.

“This is not a victimless offence. There are real children being abused.

“You must understand the gravity of this offending.”

Cave was sentenced on each of the four charges, but all sentences are to run concurrently.

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In total, he was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

Despite the stern words relating to the severity of Cave’s offending, Mr Recorder Davis suspended the year-long sentence after he took into consideration Cave’s ‘previous good character’, no previous convictions, the delay in the case being brought before the court and his ‘willingness to comply with probation’.

The judge told Cave the risk he poses could be ‘managed in the community’, but that if he offended again he would serve at least some of his custodial sentence.

Cave will also have to attend 35 rehabilitation days and live by a curfew for three months, which prohibits him from being out between 9pm and 6am.

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He will be barred from working with children and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order has been put in place on Cave for 10 years.

A forfeiture and destruction order has also been issued for the images and videos.