Howard Angel

A 59-year-old man from Boston, Lincolnshire, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison after police discovered a vast collection of illegal child abuse images on his devices. Howard Angel, residing on Wyberton West Road, admitted to three charges of making indecent images of children spanning from March 2010 to May 2019. The case came to light following a police raid on his home, where officers seized a laptop computer.

The following day after the raid, Angel voluntarily approached Grantham Police Station to confess his actions. As detailed in court by prosecutor Tony Stanford, Angel was forthright during his interview, admitting, 'I shouldn’t have done it but I did,' and explaining that he had become addicted and hooked on downloading the images. He expressed a desire for help to address his compulsion. Subsequently, Angel's then-wife discovered and handed over a second laptop hidden in the attic, which police examined alongside the first device.

Forensic analysis revealed that Angel had been accessing child abuse material for a period of nine years. In total, 16,944 illegal images were found on the two laptops, including 2,641 categorised as the most serious type. This extensive collection underscored the severity of his offending, as highlighted by Recorder Charles Falk during sentencing at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday, March 5, 2021. Falk remarked, 'What tips the balance here is the length of time you have been offending which is nine years. That and the fact that this is a very large collection makes this a case that is so serious that only immediate custody can be justified.'

In addition to the 10-month custodial sentence, Angel was issued a 15-year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. Mitigation was provided by defence counsel Michael Cranmer-Brown, who noted the devastating personal consequences Angel faced, including the breakdown of his over 20-year marriage, rejection by his children, eviction from his family home, divorce, and loss of employment after disclosing his conviction to his employer. Cranmer-Brown urged the court to consider a non-custodial sentence, emphasising that Angel had sought help since his arrest. However, the court deemed immediate imprisonment necessary given the scale and duration of the offences.

The case was handled by Lincolnshire Police, who conducted the raid and investigation leading to Angel's arrest and prosecution. This sentencing reflects the judiciary's firm stance on offences involving child sexual exploitation material.