A dad-of-two, who unwittingly chatted to an undercover policeman online about sexual activity with children, was found to have 19 indecent images on his phone, including eight of the most serious category, a court has heard.
Jonathan Laverack used the KIK mobile phone application to converse with the officer which led to police calling at his Warrington home.
He was arrested and his two mobile phones were seized and found to have the KIK app installed, said Gerald Baxter, prosecuting.
Examination also revealed a total of 19 indecent images of children, including eight in the most serious category and an extreme pornographic image was also found showing a woman having sex with an animal.
Laverack aged 44, claimed that “He received images while looking for images of adults but agreed sometimes images of children were sent which he tried to delete.
“He denied he was the one who had a conversation with the undercover officer and denied having any sexual interest in children,” said Mr Baxter.
The defendant, of Helmsdale Lane, Hood Manor, Great Sankey, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children and possessing one extreme pornographic image on September 2, 2020.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday that he had denied the allegations but changed his plea to guilty on the day his trial was due to begin last month.
Nicholas Cockrell, defending, pointed out that only a very small number of images had been found on the defendant’s phones and he only had one conviction for common assault.
He said. “The trigger which led to him descending into this world was his sister taking her life in 2018.”
Mr Cockrell added that Laverack has had no contact with his children since his arrest and while he has continued in his job of ten years the position will be reviewed after the hearing.
Judge David Aubrey, KC, told the defendant, “This court does not accept your assertion you have no sexual interest in children and were not intentionally searching for images of children.
“The fact is you had entered a particular forum and had spoken to an undercover police officer in respect of sexual activity with children.”
He added, “You are a father, you have two children. I just wonder how you would feel if one of your children had been exploited in the manner in which the children depicted in those images had been.”
Judge Aubrey said that to the outside world, Laverack had appeared a well-respected member of the community and a family man “but behind closed doors”, he had been poring such images.
He told him that he had narrowly come to the conclusion that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and sentenced him to 10 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months.
Laverack was also ordered to carry out 20 days rehabilitation activities and attend 24 probation Horizon programme sessions. He has to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed for the same length of time.
