A 25-year-old former assistant beaver leader from Mid Suffolk has received an immediate custodial sentence of 12 months at Suffolk Magistrates’ Court after admitting to making and possessing thousands of illicit images and videos of children.
Patrick Jackaman, residing in Stowmarket, Suffolk, appeared in the dock for sentence on Friday 20 August 2021 after entering formal guilty pleas to four charges encompassing the creation and possession of prohibited material.
The prosecution outlined that officers from Suffolk Constabulary executed an operation at Jackaman’s home address in October 2019. During the search, police seized multiple electronic items for digital forensic analysis, including a desktop computer tower unit, a MacBook Air laptop, an iPhone, and an iPad.
Specialist forensic investigators examined the hard drives and data storage, recovering a vast collection of abusive media:
49 Category A images and 16 Category A videos (the most severe legal classification under UK sentencing guidelines)
110 Category B images and 22 Category B videos
101 Category C images and seven Category C videos
3,040 prohibited images and 147 prohibited videos of children
The court heard that Jackaman had previously volunteered within the Scout Association movement as an assistant beaver leader. The organisation confirmed that Jackaman’s membership and volunteering position were formally terminated as soon as police notified them of the criminal investigation.
In mitigation, defence solicitor Shelley Drew stated that Jackaman had no prior criminal convictions, had fully cooperated with detectives throughout the police inquiry, and had proactively engaged with a support programme facilitated by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation child protection charity.
Magistrates acknowledged the mitigation and noted that Jackaman had been given statutory credit for his early guilty pleas by retaining the case for summary disposal rather than committing it to the Crown Court. However, the bench made clear that the quantity of material and the presence of Category A media rendered the offences “very serious”, concluding that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.
Jackaman was sentenced to a total of 12 months’ imprisonment, with statutory release on licence after serving six months in custody.
In addition to the prison sentence, magistrates imposed a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) restricting his online activity and unsupervised contact with children, ordered his placement on the Sex Offenders Register under statutory notification requirements, issued a forfeiture and destruction order for all seized devices, and ordered payment of a £156 victim surcharge.
Under the provisions of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, all children depicted in the recovered illicit imagery are protected by mandatory, lifelong statutory anonymity. Any publication, broadcast, or public dissemination of information capable of leading to their identification is strictly prohibited under UK law.
Image – Anonymous Artist Impression
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