A loner pharmacy who spent 12 years building an online library of indecent images of children and violent fantasies about the date-rape drug Rohypnol has walked free after claiming he had been left haunted by a kidnapping ordeal.
Richard Brierley, 48, was arrested after police raided his home and found indecent images plus documents containing chilling fictional self-penned accounts of how he would abduct rape and torture work colleagues.
Officers also found a video of Brierley carrying out a sex act whilst looking at a picture of a work colleague plus covert pictures of children as their played at a local school.
Brierley, a devout churchgoer, admitted wrongdoing but claimed he had been left a recluse after he was abducted in 1994 and held hostage at his university digs by a kidnapper who was later jailed for five years.
At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Brierley of Romiley, Stockport, admitted 19 charges of making indecent photographs of children between 2005 and 2017 and one of distributing photographs.
He was given two years jail suspended for two years. He was also ordered to get treatment in a Sex Offender programme and sign the Sex Offender Register for ten years.
The arrest took place in August 2017 after police acted on intelligence received about Brierley's activities.
His laptop, tablet and various other devices were seized and a total of 177 still or moving images were found - 142 of them of the most serious Category A pictures.
Prosecutor Miss Lisa Boocock said: “When police arrived at his address the defendant immediately indicated the devices on which material was stored.
“Across the devices the range of images showed an age range of children starting at seven years going up to about 15 years. Also on the devices was worrying content and it is clear the defendant had been taking covert images of work colleagues.
''Accompanying those was detailed description of exactly of what sex acts the defendant desired of those colleagues, comments about Rohypnol - he worked at a pharmacy - comments about abduction and rape of colleagues and fantasy about torture as well.
“There was a video of him carrying out a sex act whilst looking at a picture of a work colleague plus covert images of children in a school and a list of children who attended at a local school in year eight.
"The defendant was interviewed, and he accepted during that interview that he had a sexual interest in children and needed help.”
Defence barrister Benjamin Knight said: “This is a man who from around about 1994 became a recluse at that point he became a student in Salford and was kidnapped and held hostage in his own home at knife point.
"He was a victim of somebody who became known as ‘The Snapper’ - he gave evidence in those proceedings and the man received five years for his actions.
“Since then this defendant has spent most of his time at home, in university or at work. He is a man of faith and he has strongly held views about intimate relationships before marriage. He has never been married and is somebody who has had absolutely no output for sexual motivations.
“Sometimes that can lead people in a difficult direction online where mainstream porn is readily available, then on the dark web where that sort of content becomes more available.
“It appears he had begun writing a fantasy story he had stopped writing when he realised his writing had moved from writing about fantasy characters to people in his work setting.
"This is not a man who is creating content in order to upload to the internet. This is a man who is downloading content and who has taken considerable steps to exclude himself from the internet.
Sentencing Judge Angela Nield told Brierley: “You are a man who has not troubled these courts nor the police in any way it is very sad indeed to see somebody of previous good character, a man who held a qualified and responsible job who had been to university and who had a close and loving family before these courts.
“What applies to every case like this is the fact the children who are viewed are all real.
"It is easy for those who view these images to imagine that these children are somehow different to the children who are seen going about their business, in school, enjoying their lives, the children who are related to us.
''But children who are made to experience acts these are all somebody’s children. Many of them will grow up and experience huge physical and psychological difficulties with normal healthy relationships into the future and possibly for the rest of their lives.
“I have discovered it was a personal tragedy in the form of you being a victim of significant crime that appears to have led to the development of a solitary, almost nomadic existence you have and for that reason personal and intimate relationships are extremely difficult. That appears to be the root of your offending behaviour.
“You have used this interim period to change your life and seek help of a professional nature. But punishment is also needed to send out a warning message to others who may wish to act as you have done and to prevent the proliferation of these vile and disgusting images on he internet.”
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