By Local teenager who downloaded child sex abuse videos avoids jail
A East Yorkshire teenager who downloaded ‘particularly vile’ child sex abuse videos of a child under the age of three has avoided jail.
On Tuesday, June 16, Hull Crown Court heard how Kane Howell, now 18, had downloaded a compilation video of the sexual abuse of rape of young children.
He was 16 at the time, and had avoided a jail sentence.
Hull Crown Court heard how the footage, which was categorised as Category A footage, included sexual abuse of a child under the age of three.
The video is considered to depict the most severe level of abuse.
Howell had also been charged with downloading another video in Category B and 61 Category C indecent images of children between March and June 2018, when he was just 16.
Giles Grant, prosecuting, said police had executed a search warrant at Howell’s home, which he shared with his parents, in June 2018 and had seized a computer and mobile phone.
It is reported that Howell had accessed software designed to protect his activity online and increase his levels of privacy and security.
Louise Reevell, defending Howell, said he was still a young man and had not been in trouble with the law before.
She added:
“The fact of the matter seems to be that this defendant was very immature and arguably remains so at this time,” she said.
She said he was “sexually inexperienced” and had been “driven by curiosity and experimentation”.
Sentencing him, Judge David Tremberg said:
“Many if not most people in life make at least one grave error of judgment.
“When you were 16 going on 17, you made yours.”
He told Howell that in some ways the police had done him a favour by “nipping the behaviour in the bud relatively early”.
The local teenager, who was charged with having downloaded child sex abuse videos has avoided jail.
Instead, Howell was sentenced to a two-year community order, including 40 rehabilitation activity days.
He will also be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years and will have to sign on to the sexual offenders register for the same time period.
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