WATCH: Man jailed for 200 indecent images of children

Friday 22 February 2019

A 38-year-old man has been sentenced to one year and eight months behind bars for downloading over 200 indecent images of children.

Convicted of one count of making indecent images of children, Rene John Pirouet Travers (38) was handed his sentence in the Royal Court this morning.

Travers admitted to the charge at a Court hearing earlier this year.

Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, appearing for the prosecution, summarised the case for Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq, presiding, and Jurats Dulake and Sparrow. 

It was heard that Travers was arrested on 1 June last year at his home address in St. Clement due to concerns about his contact with a teenager and that “he appeared to be suffering from alcohol withdrawal".

Video: Travers was taken into custody after learning of his one year and eight month prison sentence.

The Crown Advocate told the Court that “officers seized several items from the address including a Silver Dell laptop”, which was later found to contain the 232 indecent images.

Making his recommendations on sentencing, Crown Advocate Pedley acknowledged that Travers deserved the benefit of his ‘guilty’ plea as well as the fact he has no previous convictions of this nature. 

However, the Crown Advocate emphasised that a background report put together by the Probation Service indicates that Travers “has not yet taken responsibility” for his offending and that “he remains in denial as to his interest in young, female children".

Crown Advocate Pedley noted that Travers was found by a Probation Officer to be at “high risk of sexual reconviction” and that they expressed concern that he “had no recollection” of searching for the material, meaning that he could “revert to such behaviour at any time in the future".

Pictured: Rene John Pirouet Travers was sentenced to one year and eight months in jail by the Royal Court.

The Crown Advocate then urged the Court to impose a custodial sentence of two years and order the destruction of Travers’s laptop.

Advocate Alison Brown, representing Travers, characterised his offending as “a chance encounter which led to a morbid curiosity fuelled by the use of alcohol”, but that it didn’t become “a totally immersive and irresistible compulsion".

Advocate Brown also emphasised her client’s admission of guilt and his lack of “relevant previous convictions” as well as pointing out that Travers “has begun to see the light and he is desperate to change".

The Defence Advocate therefore asked for a lower custodial sentence and requested that Travers would be permitted to retrieve “photographs of his late mother” and some other material from “education programmes” from the laptop before it is destroyed. 

Pictured: The indecent images were found stored on a laptop recovered from Travers's home address.

Handing down his sentence, the Deputy Bailiff warned: “This is not a victimless crime, there are real children who are subject to grave and perverse treatment…

“What matters to our mind is that fact that in downloading this material you have supported the environment… in which this material was created.”

The Court decided that Travers should be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for a minimum of five years, and also imposed “restrictions requested by the Crown” to control Travers’s contact with children under the age of 16. 

Travers was then informed that he will be sentenced to one year and eight months in prison for downloading the images.

The Court also permitted for the “personal family photographs and educational material” to be retrieved from the laptop before its destruction.