Following sentencing on Friday the 13th here is the latest:
A leading flying instructor has been banned from teaching and his reputation is in ruins after he paid to download images of boys being abused in the Philippines.
Richard Bristowe was a member of the Civil Aviation Authority’s advisory panel and has run flying schools in Exeter and Plymouth for many years but has now lost his accreditation.
He has also been suspended from the Exeter Airport Consultative Group, where he continued to sit alongside councillors until he admitted his guilt last month.
He was the director of Aviation South West, which was the main flying school at Exeter Airport but the business will now be sold or scaled down.
The 70-year-old businessman was caught by police with thousands of images on the computers at his home in Exeter and office at the city’s airport.
He was spared jail but sent on a sex offenders’ course after a judge branded him as having an unhealthy interest in boys and the images on his computer were described as revolting and repulsive.
Bristowe, of Birchy Barton Hill, Exeter, who has business addresses at Exeter Airport, admitted 12 counts of possessing indecent images of children.
He was jailed for 18 months, suspended for two years by Judge Phillip Wassall at Exeter Crown Court and ordered to attend the internet sex offenders’ treatment course.
He told him:”It is plain you have an interest in sex with people much younger than yourself. You are 70 and have been in a relationship with a man of 26 since he was 18.
“Some of these offences represent the most revolting images I have ever had the misfortune to deal with including very young children of seven to nine involved in sexual activity with animals.
“You were found out because you paid a man to live-stream images of children over the internet. None of these were found but it gives the lie to your suggestion you were not predisposed towards looking at images of children.
“You previous assertion that you have no sexual interest in children is ridiculous and I dismiss it.You are now beginning to admit your behaviour.”
Miss Mary McCarthy, prosecuting, said Bristowe’s home was raided by police after they were informed by authorities in the Phillipines he two Western Union money transfers to a man Manila who runs a live streaming service on the internet.
Officers found 3,600 images or movies on his computers including 41 in the worst category, which shows sadism or bestiality, and 275 showing adults raping children, of which 49 were movies.
He was also found with a memory stick in his pocket which contained the encryption key to many of the files which he had downloaded from the Philippines.
Miss Emily Pitts, defending, said Bristowe had been sent encrypted files from the Philippines and did not know what was in them.
She said his long and distinguished professional career as a pilot and flying instructor had been ended by his arrest and conviction.
She said:”He accepts it is entirely his own doing, but he has lost all his CAA accreditation and his life as a flying instructor is over. His primary concern is for his employees and he is going to have to sell the business or help them find alternative employment.”
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Exeter flying instructor Richard Bristowe's career ended by shame of 3,600 child abuse images | Exeter Express and Echo