: New Sex Scandal Involving Children To Hit the Church of England

LONDON: In a new sex scandal involving children to hit the Church of England, a priest in London was sentenced to imprisonment for pleading guilty to making hundreds of indecent images of children and possessing thousands of prohibited images of children. The Southwark Crown Court has sentenced Father Timothy Gardner, 42, to 8 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, a five-year sexual offences prevention order and will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years. Gardner had pleaded guilty on March 3 to 10 counts of making indecent images and one count of possession of prohibited images of children at an address in Camden. Scotland Yard officers completed a search warrant at his home address on August 14, 2013, after receiving intelligence. Several computers at the address were seized and Gardner was arrested on August 27 after 532 indecent images of children and 5,005 prohibited images were found to have been downloaded onto his computer systems. Acting detective chief inspector Keith Braithwaite of the Met's Paedophile Command said: "Every indecent image accessed by Timothy Gardner was a real child, a vulnerable victim of crime. His selfish and abhorrent actions have contributed significantly to the destruction of these vulnerable victim's childhoods. The MPS Paedophile Unit will identify and bring those that possess and distribute these images to justice.