William Beamson - Child Pornography Charges

"You were asking for trouble and you got it."

William Beamson was jailed today for possessing child pornography and was banned from having a passport or leaving the country without police permission.

William Beamson, 57, said that he bought child porn DVDs in Thailand where he had a girlfriend and a child.

Beamson from Hartlepool said that Customs officers had caught him with them on arrival at UK airports but they had returned them to him.
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Police seized the DVDs when they raided his one-room flat on February 28 last year, said prosecutor Shaun Dodds.

Teesside Crown Court was told that officers also found a notebook containing Web addresses for child pornography.

His computer was examined, which he had bought only a few days before. There had been searches for child pornography.

Mr Dodds said that Beamson also told police: "I've got ordinary porn there as well.

"I go away to Thailand every year for my holidays and bring them back with me. I've got a child and a wife in Thailand although I am not legally married."

He denied gaining sexual gratification from child pornography.

He had written "Holiday Pics" on five of the child pornography discs. There was also a video of how police investigate paedophiles.

Beamson was also in breach of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed by Hartlepool Magistrates on June 14, which banned him from having a camera or any photograph or image of a child.

Mr Dodds said that Beamson was later stopped on the street by police when he was wearing a T-shirt with a design showing a young girl naked on the top half.

His home was searched and officers found a digital camera and two mobile phones capable of taking photographs.

Beamson said that the shirt was a present from his Thai girlfriend, and he said he had forgotten about having the camera and phones. He had previous convictions for indecent assault on a female and indecent exposure.

Warren Grier, defending, said that the police regularly checked on Beamson and asked him where he was going.

He said Beamson had 160 pornographic DVDs of which only a small amount were child pornography.

He had candidly said that on his two to three week trips to Thailand he bought 25 to 30 DVDs and some of them contained child pornography.

Judge Peter Armstrong told him: "From the evidence that I have seen it is clear to me that you have an unhealthy interest sexually in young girls.

"Whilst being investigated by the police you went on the street with an image of a young girl naked on the top half, a blatant breach of the interim order made against you.

"You were asking for trouble and you got it."

Beamson of Grange Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for seven months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years after he pleaded guilty to nine charges of possessing indecent photographs of children and one of possessing 380 indecent images.

He was also given an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention order banning him from working with children, unsupervised contact with youngsters under 18, possession or a camera or home computer, a passport and from leaving the UK without police permission.