Paedophile from Weston Jailed for Possessing more than 500,000 Indecent Images of Children

A man from Weston-super-Mare has been jailed for more than three years after a police investigation found he had more than half a million indecent images of children.

The images were found following a search of Martin Schwarz's home after intelligence was received that indecent images were being accessed at the address.

The 65-year-old was subsequently arrested and 11 phones and external hard drives containing a total of 542,904 indecent images were seized.

After an investigation by our Internet Child Abuse Team, Schwarz was charged with:

• Three counts of making indecent images of children (categories A, B, and C)

• Possession of extreme pornography

• Possession of prohibited images

  
  

He pleaded guilty to each offence at Bristol Crown Court on 10 November and was sentenced at the same court on Friday (6 March).

He was handed a prison sentence totalling three years and four months, required to register with police under the Sexual Offences Act indefinitely, and given a sexual harm prevention order.

Investigating officer DC Katy Lewis said:

"Accessing or downloading indecent imagery of children is not a victimless crime; perpetrators often don't stop to think about the lives of young children destroyed by the abuse that takes place behind it.

"These images depict the worst possible forms of child abuse and those perpetrators who access them create a market for further images to be produced."

People accessing indecent images, or with an interest in doing, should stop and seek help, which is available from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which operates a helpline service on 0808 1000 900.

Notes to Editor: