Bradford man jailed over 35,000 ‘vile images’ of children

A BRADFORD man found with more than 35,000 “vile” illegal and indecent images of children on his computer has been jailed.

Police raided Leon Levine’s home in Bradford in September after intelligence that indecent images of children were being distributed from an IP address traced back to the property.

They found two computer towers in an attic room containing more than one million images in total, and when digital forensics officers checked 103,000 of the photos and videos, they found 35,271 were illegal and indecent.

The oldest of the images dated back to 2014, suggesting Levine had been accessing such material for seven years.

Bradford Crown Court heard that while Levine admitted in interview distributing the sickening images, there was no evidence on his computer due to him using the dark web.

The 62-year-old was charged with possessing 172 prohibited images of children, making 579 category A indecent images of children, making 1,109 category B indecent images of children and making 33,411 category C indecent images of children.

He pleaded guilty to all four charges and was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment.

He told police he had a fetish for underwear and swimwear and this obsession had started out with women, but he had moved on to children.

Gerald Hendron, for Levine, said that a third of the image sample checked by police were indecent, suggesting that there were many more if the full one million had been categorised.

“This material was like a poison. He had started looking at non-indecent images but it became an obsession – and he was relieved it had been identified so he would be forced to stop.”

Since his arrest, his 20-year marriage had broken down as had his relationship with his adult daughter. He added that Levine, now of Beckett Road, Dewsbury, had sought help through the Safer Lives programme.

Judge Jonathan Rose jailed Levine and made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for ten years.

Judge Rose described one of the more serious images which involved a young girl, adding: “That is the sort of image that you have both viewed and enjoyed, and caused to be distributed, not once, not a hundred times, not a thousand times.”

He added: “What a shame that you didn’t go to the Safer Lives program in 2014.”

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