A 40-year-old man faces deportation after a jail sentence for child abuse images
A NIGHT porter has been sentenced to more than three years in prison and recommended for deportation, after he was caught with more than 25,000 indecent images of children on his mobile phone and laptops.
More than 2,400 were category A – the most serious.
Flean Barbosa, 40, appeared in the Royal Court from custody after admitting six counts of making indecent images of children.
Judge Russell Finch described the downloading of the images as a disgusting activity.
‘The number of images, particularly of the worst type, weighs heavily on us,’ he said. ‘The offences are troubling and serious.’
The court heard how the defendant was born in South Africa, but had lived in Guernsey for 19 years.
When he was arrested earlier this year he was working as a night porter and lived in staff accommodation.
The offending came to light in March. Barbosa was in a communal lounge and had been drinking. When he went out of the room, he left behind his phone.
A witness, who knew the passcode, saw a notification so checked the phone. He saw an indecent image of a woman and a baby.
Looking further, he saw another indecent image of a boy of about five and a woman. The witness was so disgusted he threw the phone to floor, which broke the screen.
He took the phone and handed it to their boss, who passed it to the police.
Barbosa was arrested and his room searched. Two laptops were found and a third laptop was discovered later.
In interview, Barbosa admitted typing ‘child models’ into search engines to bring up images.
He admitted feeling aroused, but said he was not attracted to children in real life and did not see the images as being of real people.
He said he had been looking at images for about 10 years.
This was the first Guernsey case where the images were categorised under the new Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) system. More than 2,400 were the most serious category A and more than 2,800 were the less serious category B. More than 20,000 were the least serious category C.
Defence advocate Andrew Ayres said his client had co-operated fully with the police. He asked the court to note the defendant’s immaturity, stating that he had never had a girlfriend and worked as a night porter as he liked to be alone.
He said that alcoholism had also been a factor.
Barbosa had no previous matters on his record.
He was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for the possession of the category A images. He was also sentenced to two years, concurrent, for the other five charges.
Judge Finch said the Jurats had found it a clear-cut matter to recommend to the Lt-Governor that Barbosa be deported.
