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Claims made a year ago that North East paedophiles trapped under Operation Ore would get soft sentences have come true, a children's charity claimed.

The NSPCC said 12 months ago, as Northumbria Police launched its part of Britain's biggest-ever investigation into on-line child pornography, that sentencing guidelines were unclear.

Today the charity claimed that the soft sentences handed out in Newcastle were proof that what it said was true.

While Northumbria Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have managed to do their job by getting the perverts to court and then securing convictions, the sentences handed out have been dismal.

Out of 43 cases passed to the CPS by police, eight people have been sentenced and a further 15 have either been found or pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentence.

Others are going through the courts and just two cases discussed with the CPS by police have been officially discontinued for lack of evidence, the service said.

But on reaching Newcastle Crown Court, the maximum sentence handed out so far has been six months' imprisonment.

The irony is that perverts such as former care worker Ted Meyer, who once looked after teenagers, were sent to Crown Court for sentence because magistrates decided their powers were not enough to deal with them, even though they could have handed out six-month prison terms.

The offence of possessing indecent photographs of children attracts a maximum sentence of five years' jail while making or distributing such photographs both have maximum sentences of 10 years.

Chris Atkinson, National Policy Adviser from NSPCC, said: "The concerns expressed a year ago are being proved to be well-founded as witnessed by the sentences being meted out by the courts.

"Tougher sentences are available to the courts, but the guidelines as to how they are used need to be clearer."

In August last year, the Childrens Charities Coalition for Internet Safety (CHIS), which includes the NSPCC, said that it was concerned sentencing in offences relating to child pornography was being left to judicial discretion.

In a statement it said: "We think the guidelines need to be clearer, with more rigid definitions available for levels of offence towards the more serious end of the scale.

"For example it seems that a judge will be able to impose a sentence of anything between three and 10 years for serious offences, with no guidance available as to what constitutes a very serious offence deserving the maximum penalty."

Other children's charities have also expressed concern. Norman Titus, Director of ChildLine Yorkshire & North East, said: "While we cannot comment on any particular case, ChildLine believes that it is vital to send out the message that to view or download pornographic images of children is to collude in the creation of child pornography which is always an act of child abuse."

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Office has responsibility for the criminal justice system and we set, through legislation, the maximum sentences for specific offences. But we cannot get involved in prescribing sentences in a specific case.

"Sentencing is a matter for the courts themselves and we would expect the courts to use whatever sentence they feel is appropriate in any particular case."

Those so far sentenced are Stephen Fairweather, 26, of Torrens Road, Sunderland, given six months at Newcastle Crown Court, extended licence and 10 years on the sex offenders' register on Thursday.

Fairweather branded himself a monster after he was caught with a haul of child porn, including a girl being held in a dog collar and another manacled to a bed.

Married computer expert Andrew Gamble, 31, of Byland Road, Longbenton, North Tyneside, whose Taiwanese wife is pregnant, was given a four-month prison sentence on July 31 and put on the sex offenders' register for seven years.

He had 40,000 porn images on his computer of which 1,500 were indecent images of children filed under names such as `child sex' and `pre-teen'.

John Thomas Gaughan, 56, of Wilson Street, Sunderland, was given a five -month sentence on August 1 and seven years on the sex offenders' register.

Ted William Meyer, 58, of Catcleugh, Northumberland, was given six months on July 31 and seven years on the sex offenders' register.

Meyer was employed at a residential care home close to Newcastle run by Northumberland County Council until April 2001 and kept many of the sick images he downloaded in a file called `paedo'.

Among the 500 images recovered from his computer, 35 were serious `level four' pictures which showed adults engaged in sexual acts with innocent children.

Clerical officer John Victor Arthur Murray, 43, whose computers were seized from a house in Barrington Road, Seaton Delaval, was handed a 12-month Community Rehabilitation Order, with £500 costs and five years on the sex offenders' register.

Stephen Sydney, 28, of Allensgreen, Cramlington, was given six months in prison and seven years on the sex offenders' register. Brian Graham Thompson, 32, of Azalea Way, Newburn, Newcastle was given a £150 fine and put on the sex offenders' register for five years by South Tyneside magistrates on June 2.

Gas fitter Mark Stephen Waters, 32, of Earls Drive, Gateshead, was given a three-year Community Rehabilitation Order, ordered to pay £715 costs and put on the sex offenders' register for five years.

A further 15 defendants who have either pleaded or been found guilty are awaiting sentence.

They include former Royal Victoria Infirmary theatre nurse David Short, 45, of Hextol Terrace, Hexham, who pleaded guilty to possessing sick photographs of children and is due to be sentenced later this month.

He quit his job earlier this year after officers swooped on his home.

Also due to be sentenced is male staff nurse Matthew Forster, 40, of The Villas, St Mary's Hospital, Stannington, who is suspended from his job with the Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland mental health NHS trust.

Merchant seaman Christopher Carey, 24, of Melness Road, Hazlerigg, Newcastle has been warned he faces jail after admitting making and possessing indecent photographs of youngsters.

It was almost exactly 12 months ago that Northumbria Police launched their operation swooping on homes across the force region in a six-week period.

Two hundred officers were involved in the operation which included searches of more than 50 homes and the seizure of hard drives from over 100 computers, following analysis of information passed on in June 2002 after an investigation by the United States' FBI law enforcement agents.

Operation Ore began with an anonymous tip-off in 1998 which led Dallas police to arrest husband-and-wife team Thomas and Janice Reedy and take over their child pornography website, allowing customers to continue until they could be traced.

Fears over paedophiles

There are concerns that thousands of alleged paedophiles could escape justice because of the collapse of Operation Ore's most high-profile case to date.

The case of Soham detective Brian Stevens was blamed by prosecutor Michael Ashby for his decision to halt the trial of a teacher in Exeter.

Mr Ashby expected other prosecutors around the country were likely to take the same action as they ensured evidence from expert witnesses could be relied upon.

He believed there could even be a full-scale review of all outstanding cases.

Charges against Mr Stevens, who worked as a family liaison officer during the case of the murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, were dropped at a London court after an expert was said to have bungled evidence.

It comes as the Home Office looked at psychological testing for police officers, including those who hunt paedophiles.

Scotland Yard is reviewing the length of time officers spend in its paedophile unit amid fears over their mental health. The Metropolitan Police is to restrict service with the anti-paedophile unit due to the possible psychological effects officers can suffer from.

Nine detectives are due to be transferred as a result of the new policy.

Earlier this month the National Criminal Intelligence Service announced that the number of child pornography websites had more than doubled.

The Internet Watch Foundation told police it had witnessed a 64 per cent rise in reports of illegal sites.