A MAN turned to viewing child pornography out of "curiosity" because he has never had a girlfriend or sex, a court heard

Oliver Bromley, aged 38, downloaded dozens of indecent images of children, some as young as six and Homeland Security in the USA even contacted British police after he conned a 12-year-old girl in Pennsylvania into sending him naked pictures of herself.

Bromley, formerly of Bolton and now of Roslyn Road, Davenport, pleaded guilty to six counts of making indecent images of a child and a further offence of distributing an indecent image.

Wayne Jackson, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court how police raided Bromley’s home in Purbeck Drive, Lostock on March 29, 2018 after receiving information from the National Crime Agency child exploitation unit that two indecent images of a child had been uploaded using Facebook.

When Bromley’s Samsung tablet and phone were examined investigators found that it contained 68 of the most serious category A images of children, including a video, 69 category B pictures and 67 in category C, all accessed between 2013 and 2018.

Most of the images had been deleted and Mr Jackson said anonymous browsing software had been used to search the internet using terms such as "teenage rape scene".

Bromley was questioned by police about the pictures.

"When asked why he accessed these images he said it was out of curiosity — that he had never had a girlfriend and never had sex and that he was insecure about his weight," said Mr Jackson.

The court heard that Bromley admitted his offending but then, in December 2018, Homeland Security in the USA contacted British police to say that, in August 2017 a 12-year-old girl had been contacted by someone with the Instagram name brokenarrow2017. Bromley sent photographs of a girl to his victim, who, thinking she was communicating with another female, agreed to his request for indecent photographs of herself and sent him seven images.

The court heard that the British Gas logistics operator admitted he sometimes had a sexual interest in children and has sought counselling.

"He says he is now a changed person," said David Morton, defending, who added that Bromley is of previous good character and is "disgusted" by his own behaviour.

"He now recognises that he was living a double life during this period and that has very much now ended."

Recorder Andrew Nuttall told Bromley that, due to sentencing guidelines, it would only be possible to jail him for a short period and that society would be better protected by him being supervised in the community.

Bromley was given a three-year community order during which he has to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work and participate in 50 days of rehabilitation activities and sex offenders' programme.

He was also placed on the sex offenders' register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

Recorder Nuttall told him: "You have amply shown remorse and a certain amount of bewilderment as to why you committed the offences that you did."

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