Concerns over Philip Carpenter porn charge

Sick fantasies were being fuelled by child porn found at an internet pervert's city home, Exeter Crown Court has been told.

Philip Carpenter, 45, of King Arthur's Road, Beacon Heath, is awaiting sentencing over 22 charges involving downloading illegal internet pornography.

Concerns were raised in court yesterday about how Carpenter had been using the images to fuel "unlawful fantasies" and that "sex items" had been found at his home.

The judge, Recorder Ros Collins, said: "There are aspects of this that give some cause for concern and are perhaps outside the ordinary realm of cases like this."

She added: "There's the fear that something awful has happened in the past or will happen in the future because of the finding of other material."
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Both the prosecution and defence said there was nothing to suggest Carpenter had acted upon his fantasies. He appeared in custody yesterday to be sentenced, but the hearing was postponed until later this year.

Prosecutor Christopher Bennett did not give any facts of the case or outline the nature of the fantasies, or what they involved, yesterday.

Police have declined to comment at this stage.

But Mr Bennett told the court that other "material" was found at the defendant's home when it was searched by police.

"These images have to be seen against the fact there is clear evidence they are fuelling some very unlawful fantasies," he said. "This is borne out by the fact that there are artefacts fuelling these fantasies, although fantasies are as far as they go."

Carpenter has pleaded guilty to two sets of offences. He initially admitted four charges of making indecent photographs of children and one of possessing them but has since pleaded guilty to 15 other offences of making them and two of possession.

Further details about when the defendant's house was raided or the quantity of images were not revealed at this stage. But the judge revealed that there was a large number of 'level five' images, the worst. She asked the prosecution to reassess whether some of them could be assessed at a lower grade, due to the nature of their content.

Mr Bennett said the prosecution was going to apply to ban Carpenter from working with children and for the images to be destroyed, but this would be done later.

Defence counsel Vanessa Francis said: "They are fantasies. The items found at the house were used in consensual adult sex and it is coincidental they were in the area of the material in this case that gave police cause for alarm."

She added: "There never would have been any reality to these fantasies that were being fuelled."

Recorder Collins told Carpenter that she was adjourning sentencing, as he had only pleaded guilty to 17 of the charges at Central Devon Magistrates Court on Tuesday, and more information was needed. She remanded him in custody to be sentenced on a date to be set.

This is Exeter.