Man sentenced for making over 1,500 indecent photographs of children

Saturday 15 July 2017

A 22-year-old man who made over 1,500 indecent photographs of children between November 2014 and August 2015 has been sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Royal Court.

Shaun Stephen Marett also faced 11 counts of inciting another to distribute indecent photographs of children, and one of distributing an indecent video.

The Court heard that between July 2014 and March 2015, Marett incited different users to share indecent images but he argued he actually did so to dissuade them. He said he was planning on using the shared photographs to blackmail the users, not for money but to act as a deterrent. Marett told police officers he couldn't "stand" the "horrid" pictures and that he would delete them as soon as possible as he didn't want them on his computer. He also said that he was conducting a "sting operation" and had tried to lure users into giving him their location.

Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, who was prosecuting, however noted that no entries found in the history of messages showed he had tried to dissuade others but that he had "actively encouraged" them. 

Regarding the video Marett shared with another user, he explained that he had been blackmailed into doing so by the other man.

Police officers found 1,555 indecent photographs of children of children aged 2 to 16, with 60% of them of pre-teenage children according to forensic experts.

Defending, Advocate Jane Grace, asked Court to consider a combination of probation and community service as the "appropriate" sentence. She said that Marett was aged 19 to 20 at the time of offending and that his case had been subjected to a lot of delay that couldn't be blamed on him. 

She told Court that Marett's depression had worsened during this delay and that he was suffering from suicidal thoughts and was having panic attacks. 

She also said Marett was very "remorseful" and that he had been seeking help with his GP and found a counsellor he was comfortable talking to.  

Handing out his sentence, Royal Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, who was sitting with two jurats, said: "We have deliberated for some time but we ultimately agreed that the features outlined by Advocate Grace are not sufficient to allow us to decide a community service outcome is appropriate because of the distribution of images. These are images of actual sexual abuse on children and distributing them encourages the production of such images and further sexual abuse of young children. At the same time, we do feel a sentence of two year sentence does not give sufficient credit and mitigation to the defendant’s youth." 

Marett was sentenced to 15 months in prison for the incitement counts, 15 months for having distributed a video and 12 months for having made over 1,500 indecent photographs, all to run concurrently. 

Before Marett was taken away by the custody officers, the Royal Commissioner told him: "We advise you to seek assistance in addressing your psychological issues."