Student Jonathan Jenkins spared jail for child porn charge

A judge has warned about the dangers of young people accessing internet porn as he sentenced a former Cambridge University student caught with vile images of children.

Judge Gareth Hawkesworth spoke out against the increasing ease with which teenagers can view hardcore photos on the web, claiming it damaged young people's views on sex and personal relationships.

He delivered the stern words as he handed ex-Selwyn College student Jonathan Jenkins a four-month suspended sentence for possessing almost 300 indecent images of children.

The 21-year-old was arrested by police at his college rooms in West Road, Cambridge, in October 2007, and the sickening photos and video clips were found among a larger stash of adult porn.

Judge Hawkesworth said: "This is perhaps a frightening example of how younger and younger people are gaining access to pornography and illegal pornography via the internet."

Warning Jenkins about the impact of his viewing habits, he added: "You say you have grown out of it, but it is likely that the images you viewed as a young man may have a longer lasting effect on your behaviour and personal relationships than perhaps you credit."

The court heard how Jenkins, who is originally from Cornwall, had downloaded 293 images using file sharing application Limewire when he was a teenager.

Half of the images, which concerned girls aged 9 to 15, were level one on the Copine scale, while five were the most serious type at level 5.

Jenkins, who has left Cambridge University to study in Bath, admitted 15 counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possession.

Michael Procter, mitigating, said Jenkins had not looked at the images for some years, but they had remained on his hard disk.

"He maintains his interest in these images was when he was younger and he has grown out of them," he said.

"He accepts that he knew there was a large amount of pornography on the computer and some were child pornography images."

He added Jenkins is now in a relationship with a Cambridge student, although he had not told her about his arrest.

Judge Hawkesworth said jailing Jenkins would be "cruel and pointless exercise" as it would wreck his studies.

Instead, he imposed a four-month prison sentence, which was suspended for two years, and ordered Jenkins sign on to the sex offenders' register.

He was also given a two-year community order with supervision, banned him from contacting children other than his relatives and ordered him to inform police of his address over the next seven years.