A MAN has been sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of possessing and distributing abusive images of children.

Peter Wrall (born 04/03/1964) of Broadbottom Road, Mottram,  pleaded guilty to 11 counts of possessing abusive images of children and six counts of distributing abusive images of children at an earlier hearing.

Wrall was also convicted of 19 copyright offences after pleading guilty to possessing more than 1,600 DVD/CDs that were illegally copied without the permission of the licence holder.

He was sentenced today, Wednesday 23 July 2008, at Minshull Street Crown Court.

Police arrested Wrall at his home address on 16 August 2006. A search warrant was executed following a call from a woman in Kent who, on 18 April 2006, told police she had been sent two emails containing abusive images of children. Inquiries later established the images had come from Wrall's email address.

During the search a number of computers, CDs and DVDs were recovered for forensic examination.

Officers discovered more than 230 still abusive images, a number of moving images and abusive literature. Wrall was also found to have sent five abusive images from his email address.

During questioning, Wrall admitted to searching the internet to view abusive images of children out of curiosity. He said he had done this up to 20 times over a twelve month period but denied placing them in files, storing them on his computer and distributing them.

Wrall was again interviewed on 25 January 2007 and admitted accessing the internet and downloading the abusive images. He also said he thought he had cleaned up his computer and destroyed any evidence of the images. Wrall initially denied sending any emails containing indecent images but acknowledged only he knew the password to his account.

A court order is also currently in place freezing Wrall's assets. A proceeds of crime hearing is due to be held on the 1 December 2008.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Dave Moores of Tameside police said: "This is a very satisfying conclusion to what has been a long, and at times very upsetting, inquiry.

"In an age where many homes have computers with access to the internet, people may think they can get away with accessing these kind of images in the privacy of their own homes, without affecting or harming anyone around them. However, while people continue to access these type of images, innocent and vulnerable children will continue to be horrifically abused and violated.

"Anybody tempted to use programmes to access indecent images of children and then pass them onto innocent third parties should see today's result as a stark warning. Not only will a custodial sentence be sought, but the police will look at confiscating your financial assets under the proceeds of crime legislation.

"The public can be confident that GMP takes this kind of criminality very seriously and this is just part of our continuing drive to ensure children are not exploited."