Paedophile caught after texting image of abuse instead of selfie (2025)

A paedophile who accidentally sent a child abuse image to a fishing club he wanted to join has narrowly avoided prison.

David Robson, 66, had meant to upload a picture of himself, but instead posted a sickening photograph of a child.

Teesside Crown Court heard how a member of the Durham City Angling Club alerted the police to Robson’s behaviour.

Albany Kidd, prosecuting, said when police raided the defendant’s home in Redcar, North Yorkshire, they recovered almost 50 other child abuse images stored on his digital devices.

‘The photograph accompanying the application was not a photograph of Mr Robson for identification, it was a photograph of a female child, approximately ten years old, she was lying on the bed naked with her genitals showing,’ she said.

The defendant declined to provide passwords or pin numbers for the electronic devices that were seized, Ms Kidd added.

‘He said he was actively searching for different kinds of pornography to achieve and maintain an erection and this included searching for images of children,’ she said.

In a victim impact statement, the angling club official, who opened the indecent image, said he was concerned about the child in the image and was left shaking after seeing it.

Robson, of The Ridings, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to distribution of a Category C image and possession of four Category A images and 43 Category B images.

John Nixon, mitigating, said his client had lived a law-abiding life until his arrest and had lost his job as a result of his conviction.

He added: ‘This has been a devastating and humiliating experience for this 66-year-old, a man of previous good character.

‘He has worked all of his life and lost his job as a result of commission of these offences. Although, he brought it on himself, it has to be said that it is a dreadful burden for him to bear.’

Recorder Marco Giuliani sentenced Robson to eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

He said: ‘It is extremely disappointing that at 66 you appear before me having entered guilty pleas to possession of Category A and B images and distributing a Category C image.’

Robson was also ordered to attend 24 rehabilitation activity requirement days and was made subject to a 90-day alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement.

He was also told to sign the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

The judge added: ‘This is not a victimless crime; these are children who are severely abused, and it is clear that that abuse lives with the child until the day the child dies.

‘These images and those who buy them cause permanent harm and damage to the children who are abused to provide you with perverted sexual gratification.’

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