Westcliff paedophile visited 'pre-teen heaven' website

Nicholas Whitsed had the sordid images on his electronic devices, and had previously visited sites for indecent images of children, including "Pre-teen Heaven".

The 37-year-old of Avenue Road, Westcliff had his home raided on March 6, 2019 and various devices were seized.

Two of the devices were searched, with one containing a single category C image - the least serious kind of indecent material - while another had three category B images, and a further 747 category C images.

Most of the images were of young girls, with some under five years old.

Basildon Crown Court heard that Whitsed had encrypted software on his computers, and that he had sought the material over a long period of time.

Whitsed went on to admit two counts of making indecent images of a child and was sentenced on Tuesday.

He dressed in a dark navy suit and wore a face mask throughout the hearing.

Mitigating, Sasha Bailey said: "He is heavily motivated to explore his behaviour and address the risk he presents.

"He wants to make sure he is dealing with it with probation and not come back before the courts again."

Judge Ian Graham told Whitsed that some of the images contained "very young" girls and that Whitsed's crimes "were not victimless".

He said: "These were all young girls, some very young indeed, and it was clear from the records traced from computers that you had deliberately seeking out these images over a period of time. There were search words such as 'pre-teen'.

"The reason these offences are so serious is because these are not just fantasies or made up images. They are real pictures of real children.

"They have been forced or persuaded to take these photographs."

Judge Graham gave Whitsed a two year community order, which included 60 days of rehabilitation and also unpaid work of 60 hours.

The judge warned Whitsed that if he committed any further offences, or did not complete the work, he would be brought back before the courts.