A man said to be caring for his sick wife at their County Durham home appeared to have spent some of his spare time viewing child abuse images online, a court heard.

Police seized a lap-top computer from Gergely Sumegi’s home in Easington Colliery plus another of his devices from a repair shop, in September 2020.

Durham Crown Court heard they were sent for analysis, but when questioned about what they may be found to contain, the defendant made no comment to police.

Dr Chris Wood, prosecuting, said examination of their contents revealed indecent images of children in the top two categories of severity of such material plus a 13-minute video in which a girl aged about nine was being sexually abused.

It also revealed the defendant appeared to have been in peer-to-peer sharing indicative of child abuse imagery and searches for material featuring very young children.

Read more: 'Bored' ex-JP collected thousands of indecent child images from the internet

Dr Wood said the images appeared to have been accessed between February 2015 and June 2020.

When interviewed again Sumegi continued to make no comment to police questions.

Dr Wood said an aggravating feature of the case was the apparent searching for material featuring very young children.

Addressing the questions about the delay in the case coming to court, almost two years since police visited the defendant’s home to seize the computers, Dr Wood said they were in part caused by the pandemic, stretching police resources, while the inquiry was not assisted by the defendant’s refusal to make admissions.

“Had he admitted matters much earlier he would have been dealt with much earlier.”

The 41-year-old defendant, of Bourne Street, Easington Colliery, admitted two counts of making (downloading) indecent images of children at a recent magistrates’ court appearance and the case was sent for sentence at the crown court.

Jonathan Cousins, in mitigation, said the defendant has no previous convictions and the Probation Service takes the view there is a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation” in his case.

Mr Cousins said the defendant is the main carer for his wife, who is in, “significant poor health”.

He said as they are both Hungarian nationals there is no other family support in the UK.

Read more: Ex-military school pupil downloaded hundreds of images of child abuse

Judge James Adkin told the defendant that although he was before the court for two indecent images and one video found on his devices, he appeared to have been using a browser capable of masking his browsing history.

But he said the computer analysts found there had been some searching for material featuring very young children.

The judge told Sumegi the more people like him viewed such images, the more filming of children being abused takes place.

But Judge Adkin said, having read good references, including one from his employer, he accepted the defendant was of otherwise good character.

He passed a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, during which Sumegi must complete 180 hours’ unpaid work and attend 30 rehabilitation activity days, overseen by the Probation Service.

The defendant was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a requirement to register as a sex offender, both for ten years.

His seized computer equipment will also be forfeited and destroyed.

Read next:

Man said children on abuse images, 'seemed to enjoy it'

Sex offender found with indecent images of children, again

Defendant claimed he did not 'differentiate' between indecent images featuring adults or children

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