Man admits 16 child porn charges

AN Oldham father of two developed an addiction to sex pictures of young children — some just toddlers — after getting hooked on internet porn, a court was told.

Eric Kubala (55) had accessed almost 2,500 images of youngsters, a “significant” number of pictures of children aged from two years old, and children being subjected to sex acts.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told it was found that Kubala, of Miriam Street, Failsworth, had downloaded a further 13,000 images in total after his computer equipment was “interrogated” by expert technicians.

Sentencing him, Judge Angela Nield said many would have been “pictures of revulsion” to most right minded people.

“It may seem to be a staggering number of images, but sadly in terms of this type of offending, it is not much above the norm.”

Richard Vardon, defending, said his client had begun looking at adult porn on the Internet, and then developed an “obsession” with pictures and video clips of young children.

The court had heard that Kubala, who has no previous convictions, was arrested in February last year after police searched his address.

Kubala, who pleaded guilty to 16 counts of making an indecent image of a child, was given a three-year community order including supervision by the Probation Service, and taking part in a second offenders’ treatment programme.

He will have to sign the sex offenders’ register, and be subject to notification requirements for five years, as well as being subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for the same period.

Judge Nield told him he could easily have gone straight to prison.