A pub worker, who was “actively seeking to trade” indecent images of children on a messaging app, has been jailed for three years after 321 of the “disturbing pictures” were found across two of his phones.
Appearing today in the Royal Court for sentencing, Aaron Nursaw (28) was ultimately sent to prison for three years.
Nursaw was arrested by the Police after someone he knows discovered a number of the images whilst going through his phone. He was also charged with possessing a small amount of cannabis.
Crown Advocate Conrad Yates, prosecuting, told the Court that the person who discovered the images in the photo gallery app of his iPhone described them as “disturbing".
Pictured: Some of the images were discovered on Nursaw's iPhone.
An investigation revealed that the iPhone contained 68 indecent photographs of children.
In his Police interviews, Nursaw denied saving the images on purpose, telling officers that “he had been sent links by a third party” and when he clicked on it, he claimed that the images had “automatically saved onto his phone”.
Nursaw said that he then deleted the photos from his phone and that “he had reported the link and images as illegal” on the chatroom he was using. He admitted watching pornography “every other day” but insisted that he would only search for people aged 25 to 30, “no lower”.
Following this interview, Nursaw’s old handset was also recovered and investigated – uncovering a further 253 indecent images – 111 of which fell within the top two most serious categories of pornography of this kind.
Conversations on messaging app ‘Kik’ also showed that Nursaw “was offering to trade indecent images of children and seeking images and videos” of this kind from people he was chatting with online.
Pictured: Nursaw was 'trading' indecent images with people he was chatting with.
The Court was told that the defendant shared images of this kind with 14 other individuals.
The Crown Advocate explained that in his second interview with Police, Nursaw continued to deny that he had saved any of the images deliberately and insisted that he was not sexually interested in children.
Among the comments he made to officers were "I don’t even like kids”, “I’m not into really young ones at all”, and, “I’m not that type of person."
Nursaw also told Police that “he thought that his phone was being hacked and that somebody else had been using it".
However, Crown Advocate Yates stated: “There was no evidence within the forensic report to suggest that either phone had been hacked.”
Making reference to local cases of a similar nature and the Court’s sentencing guidelines, the Crown Advocate reasoned that three years would be an appropriate jail-term – taking into account Nursaw’s guilty plea weighed against the seriousness of the offending.
The prosecutor also asked that Nursaw remains on the Sex Offenders’ Register for a minimum period of five years and that various restrictive orders should be put in place to prevent his contact with young children.
Pictured: Nursaw was jailed over the indecent images found on his phone.
Advocate George Pearce, defending, did not oppose these orders, but argued that the Court could impose a lower custodial sentence than that put forward by the Crown.
In his client’s defence, Advocate Pearce emphasised that Nursaw’s cooperation with the investigation in providing the passwords to his phones warranted a reduction in his sentence.
He also spoke of Nursaw’s “extremely strong employment record” and the references provided by various family members which he said show that there is “a great deal more to Mr Nursaw than this offending would otherwise suggest”.
The defence lawyer continued: “He does accept that he’s done wrong. He admits his behaviour and makes apology for that behaviour.”
Handing down his first sentencing decision since being appointed as the island’s new Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq emphasised: “These offences have real victims; real children have to undergo the abuse that feeds this appetite.”
The Bailiff explained that Jurats Blampied and Pitman, who heard the case, had taken into account Nursaw’s admission of guilt and noted the references handed up by the defence lawyer.
Pictured: The case was heard in the Royal Court.
However, they did not consider that there was sufficient justification to reduce the sentence recommended by the Crown.
Therefore, Nursaw was jailed for a total of three years, placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for a minimum of five years and his contact with those under 16 will be restricted for the same period.
The Court also ordered for the phones containing the indecent material to be forfeited and destroyed.
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