Pervert claimed he 'accidentally' searched for child-abuse images at his Leeds home
A pedophile tried to convince police he had accidentally searched for child abuse online when he was caught with vile images and videos.
Denzel Bruno was lucky not to be locked up after Leeds Crown Court heard how he had shared an image with another pervert on WhatsApp - which would ordinarily attract an immediate custodial sentence.
But he had deleted the app and investigators were unable to trace the image.
Prosecutor John Hobley said police had been alerted to sickening images being uploaded from Bruno’s address in September 2022.
They executed a warrant on February 15 last year, arresting Bruno and seizing his internet devices.
On his mobile phone and storage cards they found 11 images, including two video clips, of category A abuse - the most serious kind.
They also found three category B, two in category C and six extreme pornographic images involving the sexual abuse of animals.
The children depicted in the images were aged as young as four and were downloaded between 2018 and 2023. Police also found searches on his device for abuse images.
Bruno, of Elford Place West, Harehills, said he had not meant to search, and was in fact looking for “child-porn predators”.
He also tried to claim the images found had been sent in a WhatsApp group with other adults, but closed them straight away.
Mitigating, Eleanor Mitten said there was a “relatively low number” of images compared to other cases seen in court.
She said 28-year-old Bruno had suffered a “traumatic few years” and had to flee the Dominican Republic after his partner had been murdered in a homophobic attack. She said Bruno had also been abandoned by his family because of his sexuality.
Judge Howard Crowson rubbished Bruno’s claims to the police and told him: “The truth is you are interested in children in a sexual way.
“Your claims to have accidentally received these by searching in an innocent way are unbelievable. It’s an appalling violation of children.”
He gave him a 16-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, 20 rehabilitation days, put him on the sex offender register for 10 years and gave him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to curb his internet use.