Windermere man jailed for illegal image offences

A Windermere man has been sentenced for a string of illegal image offences.

Timothy John Lovatt, aged 57, was sentenced to 3 years today (14th August) at Carlisle Crown Court.

Officers from the Constabulary’s Digital Media Investigation Unit found that Lovatt was in possession of mare than 1,500 indecent images of children that fall into categories A to C – with A being the most serious in nature.

Officers also found that he had made 1,500 indecent images, distributed over 5,000 images, possessed a prohibited image of a child and possessed an extreme pornographic image which depicts a person having sex with live animals.

The images were dated between October 2015 and December 2016.

Detective Constable Ryan Parker, Digital Media Investigation Unit, said:

“Some of the most disturbing images of abuse that our officers have ever come across were discovered on Lovatt’s devices.

“Lovatt was proactive in his approach to distributing sickening images to other people online. His distressing chat history and behaviour depicts him as one of the more dangerous online predators.

“This sentence will hopefully act as a deterrent to those who view and distribute illegal images.

“We will continue to prosecute those who abuse children by engaging in this sort of behaviour.

“We encourage anyone who has any suspicions of any sort of abuse to contact us so we can investigate. By doing this we can continue to protect children by bringing offenders to justice.”