A deemster has called a sex offender a coward, after he tried to pin his crimes on his ex-wife.
The Court of General Gaol Delivery heard that John Peter Eaton, aged 33, was jailed for 26 months for one count of inciting acts of gross indecency and seven counts of making indecent photographs.
The court heard that the crimes came to light in October 2021, Eaton was unemployed at the time, and his, now ex-wife, checked his laptop to see if he was applying for jobs.
She found the material on his laptop and reported it to the police.
On searching Eaton’s devices, a total of 10 ‘moving and indecent images’ were found by police.
Prosecutor, James Robinson, said that one of the files found was a 15 minute video recorded from a Skype call where Eaton directed three children to perform sexual acts.
The court heard that it was Eaton who recorded the video call and that it was found that he accessed the file eight times.
There was another skype call that had been recorded which was a six minute video of a child performing a sexual act.
The images were assessed under the Copine scale, which measures severity from one to five, with five being the most severe.
Eaton had two images that were level one, three images that were level three, four images that were level four, and no level five images.
When Eaton was first interviewed, he denied any knowledge of the files and told the police that his wife and other relatives had access to the devices which contained the illegal content, the court heard.
In another interview, whilst he accepted that he had paid for sexual videos from Filipino women, he said that when these videos were sent they automatically downloaded the other content on his device.
He also said that he had memory issues, the court heard.
It wasn’t until the morning of the trial that Eaton pleaded guilty, before which, the defence had planned to pin the crimes on Eaton’s ex-wife, according to Mr Robinson.
In a victim impact statement, his ex-wife said: ‘I am in so much shock that this happened, it is all a blur.’
She added that it was extremely difficult for her to call the police.
She said: ‘One day I had a husband and it was all ok, the next I realised he was never the person that I thought he was.
‘The whole incident has ruined me.’
She concluded: ‘I often wonder what happened to the children who he helped to abuse and hope that they are now safe.’
In his closing remarks, Deemster Graeme Cook said: ‘You are a coward, you allowed your wife to struggle on, thinking she was going to be blamed in witness box.
He added: ‘It is appalling’ adding that what he did results from children being abused, before saying: ‘you were part of that abuse.’
Eaton has been placed on the sexual offender register as well as being placed under a sexual offenders probation order both of which are for a duration of ten years.