Fareham man jailed for possessing more than 68,000 indecent images of children

A Fareham man who had more than 68,000 indecent images and videos of children, some of which he uploaded to the internet, has been jailed.

Ian Wraith, aged 75, was arrested at his home address in Birdwood Grove on 31 July this year after police received information that child sex abuse images were being accessed from his address.

Following his arrest, police examined his digital devices where 1,265 videos were recovered by police with 79 being graded as Category A – the most serious category.

A further 66,842 still images were recovered and graded by police, with 482 in Category A.

The extent of Wraith’s offending was much greater, however, as these numbers only reflect the images which were graded by police – there were determined to be many more images in Wraith’s possession.

Wraith had served prison time for similar offences and had previously been handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) by the courts, which he breached by deliberately deleting his internet history which he was prohibited from doing.

He was subsequently charged with three counts of making indecent images of children, and two counts of breaching a SHPO.

Appearing at Portsmouth Crown Court on 2 September, Wraith admitted all of the charges and was sentenced at the same court on Friday 15 November.

At the sentencing hearing, he was jailed for 2 years and 8 months.

DC Aimee Scott-Molloy, from the Internet Child Abuse Investigation Team (ICAT), said: “Ian Wraith has a history of possessing huge quantities of indecent images of children. His continued efforts to do so in spite of court orders against him and previous prison sentences shows his flagrant disregard for the law and the risk he poses to young people.

“It must not be understated that behind every indecent image of a child is a vulnerable victim, and these crimes are among the most appalling that police can investigate.

“ICAT are a specialist team dedicated to targeting those who use the perceived anonymity of the internet to cause serious harm to children. It is challenging work but we are committed to removing dangerous people like Wraith from the streets so we can protect children.”