Former company director from Dewsbury had more than 300,000 indecent images of children

Stephen Kay, 58, downloaded and distributed child porn from the internet to fuel his unnatural lust. He did it behind the backs of his wife and daughter while working for the IPS Group as a project engineer.

Kay was made redundant from his job and asked to leave the family home after a police raid seized his computers, USB sticks and a hard drive from his home in Carlton Road.

Analysis revealed he had 299,933 indecent images with 478 of the worst kind in category five, including ritual and satanic abuse. In addition he had 7,795 images of category seven of extreme pornography.

Kay appeared at Hull Crown Court for sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to six charges of possession of indecent images of children and one charge of distributing images.

Mitigating, Antony Farrell said he had lost his job as a respected project engineer at IPS Group which employees 120 people, and his conviction had put in jeopardy his daughter’s jobs as a quality manager there too.

“He has hurt his wife and daughter and his co-workers,” said Mr Farrell. He says his is totally disgusted with his behaviour. He has wondered why he did it. In his pre-sentence report he admits there is an element of sexual enjoyment.”

Sentencing, Recorder Timothy Roberts, QC, told Kay the case easily passed the custody threshold and he could have jailed him for three years. He said: “You have pleaded guilty to extremely serious offences involving the possession and distribution of child pornography. This was over a prolonged period of time. This was not a passing phase.

“You had a number of like-minded people who you shared images with. It has been said this was completely out of character. It is not. It is very much in your character. You have developed an interest, particularly in young children. This is something that you have to face and deal with. It is something your family is going to have to deal with. You have now been cast out of your family home as befits the appalling nature of this breach of trust. Whether bridges can be built is dependent on them.”

Kay was given a two-year suspended prison sentence, given a Sexual Offences Prevention order and must undergo a sex offenders treatment programme. He was also banned from working with children and must sign on the National Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.