Jersey man jailed for possessing indecent images of children
A 53-year-old man in Jersey has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for possessing nearly 900 indecent images of children.
Ian Martyn Le Gallais pleaded guilty at the Royal Court to three offences of making indecent images of children under 16, including 78 videos.
The court heard police carried out a warrant at Le Gallais' address in December 2019.
Officers found a total of 526 indecent images on his laptop and a further 367 on his phone.
A third of the images were in the most serious category, showing explicit sexual activity, and of those 56 were videos.
The court heard that in numerous police interviews Le Gallais lied about the images on his laptop and phone and denied his sexual interest in children.
Crown Advocate, Emma Hollywood told the court that he had engaged in numerous online conversations in which he described himself as a "secret pervert".
In several online chats with "like-minded individuals" he discussed the abuse of children and babies that he would like to inflict.
On one occasion he discussed meeting up with another person to abuse children.
Defence Advocate, Julian Gollop stressed that no contact offending had taken place and that the conversations were merely "role play".
He told the court that Le Gallais had written a letter of apology from prison and recognises the need to change his life.
Le Gallais sought psychological help through his GP after his arrest in July 2020.
In his psychological report Dr Briggs wrote that he believed him to be "motivated to change".
Delivering his sentence Lieutenant Bailiff, Anthony Olsen said, having viewed a sample of the images held by Le Gallais, he was "shocked and saddened" at the "unspeakably vile acts".He added they are "depictions of appalling sexual crimes against defenceless children, and that is the real crime of this offence".
Le Gallais was sentenced to two years at La Moye prison and will be placed on a sex offenders register and be subject to a restraining order for seven years.