Bradford court told man put indecent image of child on Twitter

Paul Thackrah, 61, posted one category C image to the social networking site, but when officers searched his mobile phone they found a total of 75 illegal images, including a small number of the most serious kind.

He admitted three counts of making indecent images of children – one for each of the levels of seriousness - and was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court yesterday (March 7).

The Twitter app on a mobile phone (Image: Pixabay)

The court also heard that Thackrah, of Whinney Hill, Brighouse, could not be charged with distributing any of the indecent images, as the messages he had been sending to three others had been deleted.

Prosecutor Paul Canfield told the court: “Police received information that the defendant had uploaded a category C indecent image of a child to Twitter.”

After being arrested at work, his mobile phone was seized and 51,000 images were found – 15,859 of these were graded, with a total of 75 being classed as illegal.

These included six category A moving images, the most serious level, along with one category B moving image and 68 category C images, the majority of which were still.

Bradford Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

The charges dated back to between February 2017 and May 2019, with Thackrah being arrested in May 2021.

Mr Canfield added that there was evidence of images that were not illegal but indicated a sexual interest in children, and search terms on Google Chrome too.

When interviewed by police, he admitted exchanging messages and some images with three people but said: “I thought it was a bit of a laugh.”

Due to his Twitter account being deleted most of the messages could not be retrieved, the court heard.

“He stated he wasn’t interested in indecent images of children but had been sent them. He said he was a bit of recluse,” Mr Canfield added.

He also told police he did not obtain any sexual gratification from the images.

In mitigation the court was told that he was ashamed of his actions and had opened up to his daughter about the case. His life had been on hold, and he was hoping to go back to work after this.

He had deleted the social media account and blocked contact with those he had previously been messaging.

Deputy Circuit Judge Timothy Clayson sentenced Thackrah to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

He must also complete up to 45 rehabilitation activity requirement days and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.