A CHESTER man under police investigation for possessing indecent images moved to the Orkney Islands before being arrested.

Cheshire Police put out an appeal seeking to locate Wayne Burns, who had been living in Chester and was found to have had dozens of indecent images of children, including images and videos of the most serious kind.

Burns was later found to be living in the Orkney Islands.

At Chester Crown Court on Friday, December 8, Burns, 54 – who had earlier pleaded guilty to downloading a total of 33 indecent images of children, was handed a suspended sentence.

Prosecuting, Jo Maxwell said police had received information that an address in Chester had been downloading indecent images. Police attended in February 2019 and seized several devices to be analysed.

When they returned to that address, they found Burns had moved out and his whereabouts were unknown, and a police appeal was put out.

Burns was found to be living in "the far north of Scotland", in East Road, Kirkwall, Orkney.

Of the images found, 17 were assessed as category A – the most serious kind, including four videos. A total of 12 images were category B, and four were category C.

A number of search terms had been used to seek such images, which included sex acts on children aged as young as three.

Burns had no previous convictions.

Defending, Nicholas Williams said Burns was "unusually frank" in his pre-sentence report interview, admitting he had been "sexually aroused by such images", and accepting he had an issue which needed to be addressed, and had accessed the Lucy Faithfull Foundation as a result.

Burns was living "an isolated life" and there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

Sentencing, Judge Patrick Thompson said initially, Burns had claimed he was searching for "Japanese animation", but "it is clear you were looking for images of children being abused."

He added: "Right-thinking people don't want to see these images," saying the children in those images would be "damaged for the rest of their life".

Burns was handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years. During those two years, he must complete 200 hours unpaid work as part of a community payback scheme in Scotland, as well as be subject to a supervision requirement and complete the sex offender treatment programme.

He was also handed a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order limiting his internet use and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

He must also pay £535 court costs and a £187 surcharge.