THE BOSS of a south Warwickshire plant nursery has been jailed after the police found images of young children being ‘horrifically abused’ on his computer.
Dale Goll had pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children, one of possessing images of extreme pornography and one of possessing prohibited images of children.
And a judge at Warwick Crown Court rejected a submission that the nurseryman, whose business it was said would struggle without him, could be given a suspended sentence.
The 51 year-old of Pitchill Cottages, Pitchill, near Bidford, where he runs his nursery, was jailed for 12 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.
Prosecutor Rebecca Wade said police went to Goll’s home with a warrant after receiving intelligence he had been accessing child pornography using file-sharing software.
When they spoke to him, he admitted he had been downloading such images, and they seized seven devices which were then examined by experts.
They were found to have had illegal images on them which had been downloaded on various dates between 2005 and 2015. They included children, and adults with animals, involved in sexual activity.
When Goll was interviewed, he admitted downloading the pictures, and told officers he knew what he was doing was wrong, but that he was addicted to it, although he denied being physically attracted to children, added Miss Wade.
Marcus Harry, defending, conceded: “There’s not a huge amount I can say about the offences. But although there were more than 50 in total, only eight of those were accessible, and there is only one moving image.
“He’s not a man who spent a lot of time downloading these images.”
Mr Harry said Goll had struggled with periods of anxiety and depression, and it was at those times he found it more difficult to resist downloading the images.
Goll, who had been married for over 20 years and had two sons, aged 20 and 17, runs his own business, a plant nursery which employs seven people.
And, urging the judge to pass a suspended sentence, Mr Harry added it would struggle if he was jailed and staff could lose their jobs.
But jailing Goll, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “You knew at the time it was wrong. The reason it is so serious is that although it may not seem like it when you’re sitting in front of your computer, these are real children being abused.
“If there was not a market for them, these children would likely not be being abused in this way – and the market for them is people like you.
“You have run for years a nursery you set up yourself, and you are a good employer. But I have to deal with you for this other side of your character.
“The message must go out that if adult men download images of children being horrifically abused then, no matter what the mitigation, public policy must outweigh that, and people who do this must go to prison.”
