Comedian Tom Binns Found with 35,000 Indecent Images of Children
Tom Binns, also known as Christopher Thomas Binns, has recently made headlines for the wrong reasons. The comedian, who has appeared on Channel 4’s popular show 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, has been found guilty of possessing more than 35,000 indecent images of children
TV comedian Tom Binns, who is known for his performances as hospital DJ Ivan Brackenbury and has appeared on Channel 4’s “8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown,” has managed to escape jail time after being discovered with over 35,000 indecent images of children.
Christopher Thomas Binns, aged 53, pleaded guilty to five counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing a prohibited image.
Derby Crown Court revealed that Binns had thousands of images stored on multiple devices. Despite the severity of the charges, Binns, who does not have any prior convictions, received a suspended sentence from Judge Shaun Smith KC on Thursday.
Prosecutor Lauren Fisher said that the investigation had uncovered a total of 104 category A indecent images, the most serious classification, along with 411 category B images and a staggering 34,946 category C images. Police also found several prohibited and moving images of categories B and C.
However, Judge Smith highlighted the possibility of duplicated images within this collection. Fisher stated that the downloads had taken place between March 26 and November 21, 2020.
Police executed a search warrant at Tom Binns’s residence in Bole Hill, Calow, Derbyshire, leading to his arrest and the seizure of 39 devices, including a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and an iPad. Among the devices were two hard drives containing both accessible and inaccessible images.
Shockingly, there were approximately 25,000 inaccessible category C images among the stored media. Lauren Fisher also revealed that the National Crime Agency had received information about multiple uploads of category C indecent images of children from an email associated with the TV comedian.
“During the investigation, it was established that a third party of Mr Binns’s partner had been asked to sell several devices on behalf of Mr Binns. Police checked those devices.
Matthew Hayes, mitigating referred to his client’s lack of any criminal history subsequent to the incident. Hayes also mentioned the impact of prescribed medication that Binns was taking during that period, although he did not provide specific details in court.
In an earlier statement to the comedy news website Chortle, Binns said: “Over two years ago, while under the influence of an overdose of prescription drugs for ADHD, which induced obsessive-compulsive disorder, I downloaded and deleted a very large amount of adult pornography over a short period of time. Within those downloads, it appears there was some child pornography which I had not sought out nor wanted.
Judge Smith characterized Binns’s actions as “simply unacceptable” but determined that he did not pose a risk to the public and was unlikely to re-offend. As a result, Binns received a combined 10-month sentence, suspended for 15 months. Additionally, he was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and required to sign the sex offender register for the next 10 years.
Judge Smith said: “You are sickened by what it was that you were downloading and looking at and, quite frankly, you don’t need me to tell you that you should be, because this kind of offending has real victims.
“It is right to say that had it not been for Covid, had it not been for the medication you were taking at that period of time, you would not be before the court, but the fact is that you are. You have returned to the law-abiding life that you were living before these offences.”
