Scout leader's 14,000 porn photos

A Scout leader was found with more than 14,000 indecent images of children on his laptop computer, a court heard.

Melvin Penn, 59, from Stockport, admitted five counts of downloading indecent photographs or altered photographs of children.

He also admitted a charge of possessing 14,000 indecent photographs or altered photographs of children.

Penn was granted conditional bail and committed for sentence at Manchester Crown Court on 2 December.

He was also issued with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning communication on the internet with boys under 16 or carrying out any work which could bring him into contact with them.

'Child porn'

Stockport Magistrates Court heard that Penn, who is self employed and repairs computers, was discovered by police who found he was a member of child porn website which contained images of girls and boys.

They searched his Stockport home seizing a computer, photographs, CDs and video equipment while he was holidaying in Thailand but only found pictures of boys taking part in Scout activities such as football and canoeing.

However when they checked equipment he left at a friend's house they discovered he had accessed a number of child porn sites.

Penn was arrested at Manchester Airport on 6 August and officers seized an Apple Mac laptop computer, CDs and rolls of camera film.

'Indecent images'

They found more evidence of active searches of child porn sites, indecent images of children and an e-mail he sent to one site saying he had problems accessing it.

Frances Killen, prosecuting, said 50 of the 14,000 images discovered showed sexual activity among children while the rest showed children in erotic poses.

"Mr Penn is involved with the Stockport Scout movement as a Scout master of the highest rank, giving him unsupervised access to young males," she said.

Mr Richard Stone, defending, said Penn's case was "borderline" due to the low level of severity of most of the pictures.

His role in the Scout movement was also misrepresented, he said.

"Mr Penn is a group leader rather than a Scout leader. His role is to supervise the adult leaders, so he has limited contact with the youths," said Mr Stone.