A Haslemere man who stored more than 100 pornographic images of children, including six video clips, escaped a prison term and instead was given a three-year Community Rehabilitation Order when he appeared in court of Friday. Richard Woodgate, 32, who works as a greenkeeper for a golf club, was caught with the photographs after his name was detected on a US website selling the pictures. It led to Woodgate of Lower Hanger, standing in the dock at Guildford Crown Court for sentence, having admitted 13 charges of possessing indecent images of children. Simon Connolly, prosecuting, said Woodgate's arrest came out of the closure of Landslide Productions' website in America. Mr Connolly said: "The defendant's name was passed on and the matters he faces arose out of indecent material of the type that was found on these sort of sites. "On March 22, 2003, a search warrant was granted for his home address. He was not arrested at that stage. "But items were subjected to forensic examination and 125 indecent images of children were recovered from his computer and zip files." The court heard that these types of images are divided into five categories of which one is the lowest. Mr Connolly said Woodgate had one category five, 12 category four, of which one was a video clip, 31 category three, of which four were video clips, nine category two, of which one was a video clip, and 71 category one images. Following the investigation, Woodgate was arrested and told interviewing officers at Guildford police station he admitted seeing some of the images he was shown. But he could not tell police from which site they had come from and denied hearing of Landslide but accepted that the email address used on the website was his alone. The court heard that Woodgate had no previous convictions and Judge Robert Reid, QC, ordered the destruction of the computer equipment seized. Selwyn Shapiro, defending, said: "I respectfully submit, what your honour is dealing with is a tiny amount of material. "These cases can involve not just hundreds but thousands and thousands of categories four and five. "In many ways this is a very, very, sad case. It is clear he has led a very, very, shy existence. "It's clear his life has been a very sheltered life. "This case is plainly and simply about private viewing with no aggravating features. "The shame this defendant has is demonstrated by the fact that his parents are in court but he could not bear to have them in here to witness what is happening." Judge Robert Reid, QC, sentencing Woodgate, said happily most of the images had been in the lower echelons of the range. He said: "There were, however, one category five image and 11 category four; one category four was a video. "The harm to the children who form the subject of these pictures is something which is difficult to ascertain. It is for that reason, and in a large number of cases it clearly does have a very great negative impact on the children, that making or possessing is a serious criminal offence. "The matters to which you pleaded guilty to in many cases would attract a custodial sentence. However, in this particular instance it seems to me it's not inevitable for punishing you or for the benefit of society. It can properly be dealt with by a probation order. "A condition of the Community Rehabilitation Order, which will be for three years, is that you attend the appropriate sex offenders' group work programme." Woodgate was also ordered to pay £280 towards prosecution costs and £500 towards defence costs.
