A 25-year-old Sheffield resident came to authorities' attention after a mobile phone retailer employee discovered explicit images of children on a device he had sold to the shop. Subsequent investigation of his electronic devices recovered 264 such images in total, with 130 classified as the most serious category involving penetrative abuse.

In sentencing, Judge Anthony Dunne imposed eight months' imprisonment suspended for 18 months alongside 100 hours of community service and a five-year sexual harm prevention order. The judge rejected the defendant's account that he had encountered the images by chance within an adult chat forum, and stressed that individuals with attractions to children must seek to address this behaviour. The judge took into account the four-year delay before the case reached court, his guilty pleas, and lack of prior convictions when determining sentence.