Defence lawyer report helps man avoid immediate prison term

Mr A faced an immediate prison sentence over an alleged haul of 120,000 indecent images of children.

But after Stuart Miller Solicitors instructed an independent expert to analyse his computer, it emerged that there were far less than suggested by the police.

While there was still a substantial amount of illegal material, strong mitigation assembled by Mr A’s solicitor enabled a judge to instead pass a suspended prison term.

Kate Blackmore, from the London firm’s criminal defence team, represented Mr A from his police station arrest until his conviction.

A spokesman for Stuart Miller Solicitors said: “Mr A had been charged with making indecent images of a child, including category A, B and C images. The number of images found were purported to be over 120,000.

“Kate has vast experience dealing with sexual offence cases and in particular cases of this kind.

”Kate sought an independent expert to re-examine the evidence in this case. The report was extremely positive for our client and confirmed that there were 100,000 fewer indecent images than purported by the police.

“Kate’s instruction of an expert was vital to this case where Mr M was looking at a sentence with a starting point of 12 months’ immediate custody.”

Ms Blackmore, who kept in contact with Mr A throughout his case, selected a barrister she thought best for the case, and also obtained detailed mitigation in preparation for his sentencing hearing.

The comprehensive mitigation, along with a pre-sentence report, led to a judge handing down a sentence of eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.