A SEX offender who tried to blame his friend after his phone was found to contain indecent images of children has been shown “leniency” after a jury “unsurprisingly” rejected his pleas of innocence.

Thomas Trump, 25, fuelled an “evil” trade in the sharing of child abuse images when he was found to have sent on two illicit pictures to “acquaintances”.

The offender, whose phone was seized in 2018 following his arrest, told police a former friend had access to his phone, adding he “couldn’t explain” compromising chat logs which showed he had engaged in sexually-charged conversations about children.

Three child images at Category A, B and C were found on the phone, alongside a sexualised cartoon image of a child.

He denied three counts of possessing indecent images of children, two counts of distributing incident images of children and one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child, but was convicted on all counts following a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Judge David Turner KC told Trump, of De Grey Road, Colchester, the jury were right to convict him.

“These things were found on an iPhone at your parent’s address where you then lived,” he said.

“The images were very few indeed and you sought to blame other people for their presence, namely a housemate.

“The jury unsurprisingly rejected that. You’ve not given a frank account and I found, as I suspect the jury did, your narrative wholly unconvincing.”

But the judge acknowledged Trump was “not committed to this kind of activity” and found he could be rehabilitated.

“There’s no doubt at all you were to a degree an immature and confused person at 20, as I believe to a degree you still are,” he said.

“There are assertions you have some special needs, you yourself have spoken of ADHD, there is talk of a sensory perception disorder, of autistic tendencies and reference to depression.”

But he said Trump needed to understand he had not committed a victimless crime, while accepting the images are of a small number compared to other such cases.

He added: “These are images still, of real children.

“These children are taken by evil people to studios and hotel rooms and the like, where they are filmed and the trade that results is fed by people like you.”

Judge Turner said he hoped with “proper help”, Trump could turn his life around.

Imposing a three-year community order, he ordered Trump to complete an accredited programme for such offenders and a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

The offender will be subject to notification requirements for five years, barred from working with children and must abide by an electronically monitored curfew for three months.

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