Jail over 'busiest' child porn library

Guest was convicted of 32 child porn offences

A young computer clerk has been jailed for two years for running Britain's "busiest" child porn Internet library.

The Old Bailey was told that Darren Guest, 20, from Stratford, east London, spent hours on his computer in contact with other paedophiles in chat rooms to build up the "abhorrent" collection of pre-teen material.

Guest, who lived with his parents, was unanimously convicted of 32 offences of making, distributing and advertising indecent photographs of children.

His 2,000-image library proved so popular that in just one four-day period it had nearly 3,000 "visitors".

This case also demonstrates there is no such thing as anonymity on the net. We will always trace these people

Pc Anne Linton

Considering it was running for just three-and-a-half months, police believe it was probably Britain's "busiest" child porn Internet library.

He operated a "carefully planned and sophisticated" exchange system, using "sick" advertisements to invite others to swap their own pictures in return for access to his extensive collection.

Judge Peter Fingret said: "These images are clear evidence that at some stage serious offences were committed, not by you but by others, involving the exploitation and abuse of young children."

He added those youngsters would continue to suffer "damage" because people like Guest were distributing pictures of their ordeals.

Bedroom search

The court heard Guest was just 19 when his activities came to light during routine monitoring of Internet paedophile chat rooms by officers in Greater Manchester's Obscene Publications Unit.

Police then contacted Guest's Internet service provider to find out who he was and then searched his bedroom, where they recovered the illicit images from his computer hard drive.

Guest did not give evidence but argued through his barrister that he had been the victim of a mysterious hacker who had somehow "taken control" of his computer and "piggy-backed" the system for their own "nefarious" purposes.

Outside court case officer Pc Anne Linton said it was clear Guest ran "one of the busiest, if not the busiest" Internet operations of its kind.

"This case also demonstrates there is no such thing as anonymity on the net. We will always trace these people," she added.

The judge added that Guest - who will serve the first part of his sentence in a young offenders' institution before being moved to an adult jail - would have to register as a sex offender for 10 years upon his release.