A FORMER prison employee was found with almost 700 images of women performing sex acts with animals, including snakes, elephants and tigers. Stephen John Thresh, 48, walked into a police station after receiving a warning message on his computer that the "law authorities" were monitoring him.
He handed in two laptops containing hundreds of extreme pornography without realising the spam warnings were false.
Hull Crown Court heard Thresh was suffering from depression, anxiety and panic attacks at the time following the death of his father and had viewed the images when he was drunk late at night. He pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to six counts of possessing the extreme images which the judge described as a "very serious" matter. Thresh told the court: "I will be glad when it is all behind me. It will be a new start for me."
Thresh, of Lee Street, east Hull, claimed he had not realised it was illegal to view such images after the law changed in 2009. His computer history showed Thresh, who worked in prisons as a joiner, had been viewing the images as far back as 2007 before he went to the police station in March.
His barrister Richard Thompson said: "The defendant asserts he was completely unaware the law had changed."
Thresh has been spared jail and, instead, has been given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. He was ordered to have 12 months' supervision from the Probation Service and perform 60 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Mark Bury told him: "You went to the police station with two laptops. You did so because one of them had effectively closed down as a result of you accessing sites containing extreme porn images. One contained 689 extreme images involving females taking part in some sex acts with animals, mainly dogs and horses.
"I'm told that other animals were involved, snakes, tigers and an elephant. That number of images, depicting that level of extreme activity, is a very serious matter. Whatever the mitigation, this offence crosses the custody threshold. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
"However, you handed yourself in, you were frank in interview and you pleaded guilty. It is of note that none of the images concerned involved children."
Thresh will not be placed on the Sex Offenders Register and the judge declined to make a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
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