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Former priest jailed for child porn offences after Great Yarmouth home raided

Edmund Black Picture: National Crime Agency Archant

A former priest who had hundreds of indecent images of children at his home in Great Yarmouth has been jailed for 31 months.

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The then home of Edmund Black, 44, was raided by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers in January and they found 400 illegal images on his laptop.

It was part of an NCA investigation that found Black was present in online chat rooms 18 times when child sex abuse was being shown between September 2015 and March 2018.

In May 2016 he hosted one of the conference rooms where nine videos were played showing horrific abuse of very young children – one thought to be just three-months-old.

No live abuse was shown.

In the footage seen by officers Black made comments about his sexual interest in babies.

Despite being on bail after his Yarmouth home was raided, Black continued to use the chat rooms and continued to offend.

He was then charged with two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the distribution of indecent images of children, and one count of making indecent images of children.

Black, now of Walworth, London, was jailed for 31 months at Kingston Crown Court.

In 2013 under the name Fr Edmund Higgins, Black was convicted of possessing indecent images of children.

At the time he was a Catholic priest in Richmond, south west London.

After the latest sentencing NCA senior investigating officer Martin Ludlow said: “Every time these horrendous images are shared that child is victimised again and again.

“Black has shown no remorse for any previous offences he has committed and even continued offending while on bail.

“He went out of his way to encourage others to view and share images.

“We and our partners in policing do everything possible to catch people like Black. Those who commit these appalling crimes will be found and brought to justice.”

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Offenders like Black not only take pleasure in the abuse of the children in these images and videos, they also fuel the demand for more to be created.

“The NSPCC wants tech companies, government and law enforcement to continue to work together to find solutions to the proliferation of online abuse images and cut this sickening material off at source.”