Probation for Derry man who admitted having 197 indecent images of children

A man who admitted having 197 indecent images of children has been given three years probation and ordered to sign the Sex Offender's Register for seven years.

William Putt (27) of Brandywell Road in Derry had admitted three courts of possessing the category A, B and C images on dates between May 29 2020 and August 1, 2020.

The court heard that on August 26, 2020 Putt told staff at Gransha Hospital that he had access to child images.

Police went to Putt's address on September 21, 2020 and the defendant voluntarily handed over all his electronic devices and the images were found.

He told police he had first been exposed to images while at secondary school.

Judge Neil Rafferty KC said that there was 'a difficult background' to this case as the defendant himself had been sexually groomed as a child.

He said Putt was currently in custody as he was homeless 'because addresses became unavailable to him due to the nature of the charges'.

The judge said the defendant was currently on mental health medication and had made admissions to medical staff in the knowledge this would be passed on to police. 

Judge Rafferty said he 'understood' the public concern about this type of offending but felt that a probation order was more appropriate than a short prison sentence. 

He said this would enable Putt to undertake the intense sexual offenders course that 'historically and statistically' had been shown to reduce offending. 

Putt was sentenced to three years probation on condition he participates in the course, ordered to sign the Sex Offender's Register for seven years and had a Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed also for seven years.