Former Barnstaple church volunteer downloaded indecent images of children

A former church volunteer has pleaded guilty to making and possessing indecent images of children.

Joseph Lock, 38, appeared in front of North Devon magistrates this morning charged with two counts of making indecent photographs of children and two counts of possessing prohibited images of children.

The church Lock volunteered at in Barnstaple, which was not named in court, required a Criminal Records Bureau check to be done which revealed the offending images.

As the report was taking some time the bureau decided to check the internet usage on computers Lock had been using.

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Terms including "pre-teenage nudists" had been searched for under his profile on the church's computer so it was seized and subjected to further checks.

Indecent images of children were found and so a further search was conducted at Lock's home address in June 2012 where more images were found on his personal laptop.

Officers also discovered a number of printed stories about female children being subjected to sexual abuse and eventually death.

There were also mentions of females being raped, tortured, cut up and eaten.

Although the printed stories did not form part of the charge, Karen Ball, for the prosecution, said they were relevant to the case.

Lock, of Rackfield Court in Barnstaple, told officers he had also downloaded images onto his mobile phone.

51 indecent images were found on the device along with 43 prohibited images.

When Lock was interviewed after being granted bail he said he was responsible for all the images downloaded.

He said the images on his phone had been taken from Google.

Lock also said the prohibited images had been downloaded out of a "morbid curiosity."

Rod Ball, for the defence, told magistrates Lock no longer attended church but still received support from them and he appeared in court with a church worker.

Magistrates adjourned the case for a full pre-sentence report until April 12.

He was granted conditional bail not to have contact or unsupervised contact with a child under the age of 16.