Black Country man found with images of young girls walks free from court
A Walsall man who was found with images of young girls from Indian and Japanese porn sites on his phone has escaped jail after a court heard he hadn't offended for over two years.
Mohammed Salman was found with the images when police officers attended the address he was living at in Hart Street, Walsall on September 13, 2023.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard he had four category A images, five of category B and 12 of category C on his phone, including evidence of him having visited foreign porn sites.
He initially denied the offences, which dated back to a month before and said a friend had downloaded the images, but police had found an e-mail address linked to him and when the case came to trial, he admitted the three offences.
At his sentencing on Wednesday, Judge Jonathan Gosling said although the amount of images downloaded were at the lower end of the scale, the fact he had denied the charges initially meant he was close to the custody threshold.
He said: "The offences are quite historic now and the case hasn't been able to be dealt with due to the pressures on the court system but there has been no offending since and you need to make sure it stays that way."
For each of the offences Salman, of Glebe Street, Walsall was given a two year community order to run concurrently, a 55 days rehabilitation order, and ordered to do 60 hours unpaid work.
He was also given a sexual harm prevention order for five years.