Solihull businessman found to have over 800 indecent images of children on his laptop spared immediate jail sentence

A Solihull businessman was found to have over 800 indecent images of children on his laptop whilst staying at a hotel, a court heard.

Richard Szpala, 44, was caught looking at child pornography – including the most serious A and B categories – when police swooped on the hotel, Birmingham Crown Court was told.

But a judge spared him an immediate jail sentence.

Judge Philip Wassall said he was doing so because he had no previous convictions and he had already taken steps to tackle his child porn habit.

Szpala, of Grafton Road in Shirley, pleaded guilty to four charges of possessing indecent images of children.

He was given a four month jail sentence, suspended for two years.

Szpala was also ordered to do 120 hours unpaid work and register as a sex offender for seven years.

Police discovered a movie classed as the most serious Category A, two more pictures were classed as Category B, while there were 854 photographs ranked as Category C.

Hugh O’Brien-Quinn, prosecuting, said Szpala was staying at a hotel in Solihull in October last year for business because he was living in Shropshire at the time.

He was using the hotel’s wi-fi to access file sharing sites and the police went to the hotel and were able to trace his computer to his room.

“They went into the room and seized computer equipment and mobile phones,” Mr O’Brien-Quinn said.

On his laptop they found a movie, lasting just four minutes, which showed a boy and girl, aged between 12 and 14 and in which other unseen people were heard speaking in a foreign language.

Because of the nature of these images, this was classed as Category A – the most serious for child porn.

During interview, Szpala refused to answer any questions and just said ‘no comment’ throughout.

When police looked at his computer they found the other indecent images – including 854 at Category C – deleted on his hard drive.

Mr O’Brien-Quinn said an examination of his search history found one entitled “pre-teens”.

Gurdeep Singh Garcha, defending, said his client had no previous convictions and was “an intelligent and a good man, in most other respects”.

He said: “He is deeply ashamed and remorseful and knows that real children are suffering real harm in these images.”

The barrister said Szpala realised he had a problem with child porn and had taken steps to deal with it by enrolling with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

He was due to start the course in October which is designed to help men tackle their online child porn habit.

Judge Wassall told him that normally these offences would carry a six months jail term.

But because Szpala was of previous good character, had pleaded guilty and taken steps to address his addiction, he was giving him a suspended sentence.

Read more: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/child-porn-solihull-businessman-spared-13454559