AN ARMY reservist has successfully persuaded a judge he can be punished in the community after more than a year of denying he was responsible for a library of indecent films and pictures of children.

Paedophile Oliver Charles Gates, 34, claimed “I have no sexual interest in young girls” at his trial despite having previous convictions for indecently assaulting and gross indecency with a 13-year-old girl.

Immediately after the jury returned 11 guilty verdicts that together convicted him of downloading and possessing the 600 plus sexual videos and pictures over a period of nearly two years he broke down in the dock.

His barrister Jeremy Hill-Baker said he now accepted that he was responsible and asked for sentence to be adjourned so that probation officers could assess if he was suitable for a sex offender treatment programme.

“He is a broken man,” said the barrister. “He wishes now to face up to all of this because the alternative is unbearable.”

York Press:

On his return to York Crown Court, Gates, of Thoresby Road, Acomb, received a two-year prison sentence, but Judge Andrew Stubbs QC suspended it for two years on condition he went on a sex offenders’ treatment programme and did other rehabilitative work.

He was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order curbing his behaviour for the rest of his life in a bid to prevent him repeating his offences, and put on the sex offenders’ register, also for life.

Following the verdicts at the same court last month, the judge said the evidence against Gates had been overwhelming.

“You have buried your head in the sand,” he told Gates.

The jury heard that police found the indecent videos and pictures on an iPod and a memory stick in Gates’ bedroom when they raided his home on March 10, 2015, as well as the hard drive he had used to download them between April 19, 2012, and March 2, 2015. He was arrested and denied the offences in police interviews and during the trial.

Gates committed the indecent assault and gross indecency offences in 2003.