Stanley Burnett – Gateshead

A perverted pensioner who laughed then lied when asked if was sexually attracted to children has been jailed.

Despite downloading sickening child abuse images and encouraging other adults to abuse their children in twisted online chats, Stanley Burnett does not accept he has a distorted interest in youngsters.

Newcastle Crown Court heard it was in August last year that police got information about Burnett being on social media discussing the sexual abuse of children and sharing indecent images of youngsters.

Officers then went to his home with a search warrant and seized various devices.

A check on his phone showed he had been engaging in online chats with other adults, during which he encouraged them to sexually abuse their own children, among other things.

He also sent indecent images to those profiles.

Burnett, 76, of Alwinton Gardens, Lobley Hill, Gateshead, was found to have 985 of the most serious, category A, images, 373 category B and 192 category C.

There was a mixture of moving and still images. He had also expressed disgusting desires about what he wanted to do with children.

The court heard that when asked by police if he was sexually attracted to children, Burnett laughed.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, two of distributing indecent images, three counts of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, advertising indecent images of children and breaching a sexual risk order.

Jailing him for five years, Recorder Tony Hawks said: “All these offences arise out of your perverted interest in looking at and talking about the abuse of young children.”

The judge said Burnett’s protestations in a pre-sentence report that he didn’t have a sexual interest in young children was “plainly a lie”. He added: “By having an interest in this sort of disgusting material you create a market for it and encourage it. That’s why the offences are so serious.”

He said such offences have a “catastrophic effect” on victims and ruin their lives. Recorder Hawks told Burnett: “Well, you have to go to prison, I’m afraid, for some time.

“I accept you are an elderly man with health problems. You may have been drinking too much at the time but these offences span quite a significant period of time and lots of people get drunk or drink too much and don’t feel a need to look at young children being sexually abused or talk about it to fellow perverts.”

Burnett was jailed for five years and must sign the sex offenders register for life and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order.