An east Belfast man who shared “perverted” images of suicide scenes has avoided jail due to a delay in bringing his case to court.
Colin Hewitt (35), from Hyndford Street, was convicted on three counts of sharing images that included crime scene pictures of suicide victims.
Newtownards Magistrates’ Court heard on Monday that Hewitt, formerly known as Scott Longworth, was “a convicted, registered sex offender”.
District Judge Mark Hamill described him as a man of little reputation.
Hewitt is subject to a sexual offences prevention order.
The judge said if there had not been such a “disconnect” between the offences and the case concluding - a time span of more than six years - “an immediate custodial sentence would have been inevitable”.
Describing the case as a “spin-off” from the trial of two police officers accused of misconduct in public office for allegedly sharing the same images of the scenes of two suicides, District Judge Hamill said: “I can only imagine the distress this has caused the families of the deceased”.
The court heard on Monday that while it was not known how Hewitt had come into possession of the images, “they can only have been taken by an officer who was present at the scene”.
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Judge Hamill said the “real gravamen” of the case would be when two police officers went on trial at Belfast Crown Court next year.
He said regarding Hewitt, it was difficult “sentencing a man without reputation” for the three charges of the improper use of a telecommunications network.
The judge said Hewitt was “a man with a perverted interest in children and who has caused further damage” sharing “utterly grotesque images”.
However he added that he had never come across “a delay as manifest as this” between the offences in 2017 in the case coming before the court.
The judge told Hewitt if the case had been dealt with closer to the time of the offences, he would have jailed him.
Because of the delay he instead said he would impose a two-year conditional discharge, warning Hewitt that if he committed further offences in that time “the delay will not count again”.