Bromsgrove man made and distributed indecent images of children

Mark Cowmeadow appeared at Worcester Crown Court last Thursday (October 24) after admitting two counts of making indecent images of children and one of distributing an unknown quantity of indecent images.

A warrant was executed on August 6, 2017, at the home of the 63-year-old, who then lived in Droitwich but has since moved to Bromsgrove.

Various electronic devices including laptops and memory sticks were seized and analysed.

In total, four category B images, all stills, were found and 138 category C images (135 stills and three movies).

No category A images (the most serious) were found which show penetrative sexual activity.

However, the category B images did contain other forms of sexual activity involving adults and children.

Officers also found evidence of file shredding software and search terms such as ‘sweet 12-year-old girl’ and ‘pre-teen model’.

One of the folders was called ‘schoolgirls’ and file names included ‘paedo Lolita’ and ‘pre-teen sex’.

Ian Ball, prosecuting, said some of the images showed girls aged six to eight years old although the judge referred to one victim as young as five.

In police interviews, Cowmeadow said he was interested in girls aged 14 and upwards.

“He claimed he wasn’t into infants and also said he was into cross-dressing” said Mr Ball.

Cowmeadow, now of Woodcote Lane, Bromsgrove, told officers ‘it was all pure fantasy’.

Jacqui Callan, defending, said her client was of previous good character and had entered guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity.

Miss Callan said: “He knew that the viewing of the images was wrong. He said it was something that almost became a pattern of behaviour.”

He had sought support off his own back from two agencies - the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and the Safer Lives organisation.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright said the distribution was the most serious of the offences though the prosecution could not say what category of images were distributed or the quantity.

He told Cowmeadow: “The reason why offences of this kind are regarded as so serious is because somewhere in the world, perhaps not in this jurisdiction, a child has been involved as a victim in sexual offending which is photographed or filmed and ends up going onto the internet.”

He said one of the images was of a girl aged five to seven with an adult man’s penis in her hand and that these were offences against ‘real’ children and that often the images were on the internet ‘for all time’.

“They must be wandering around wondering if people recognise them in the street as the person in that photograph. It must be the most awful experience,” he said.

The judge made a community order for two years to include 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and an accredited programme for 60 days.

Cowmeadow was fined £1,000 to reflect the use of public money to fund the analysis of electronic devices which the judge said would ‘result in some money finding its way back to the treasury’.

A sexual harm prevention order was made which restricts his use of the internet including his use of anti-forensic software and his contact with children.

He was further ordered to pay £340 costs.