Nicholas Guy Coverdale

A 76-year-old pensioner from Whitehaven, Cumbria, has been sentenced for possessing and making a large number of indecent images of children, some depicting particularly young victims.

Nicholas Guy Coverdale, of Hillcrest Avenue, Whitehaven, appeared before Workington Magistrates’ Court in September, where he entered guilty pleas to three charges related to the creation of child abuse images. These included making 39 category A indecent images—the most serious category—64 category B images, and 632 category C images. The court heard that the images were stored across three different devices, including USB drives, and featured children as young as three to four years old, with others aged between five and six, and seven and eight.

The offences occurred in Whitehaven between June 2013 and March 2022. At his sentencing hearing on 20 October at Carlisle Crown Court, Judge James Cartlidge imposed a 12-month community order, which included 20 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and a nine-month curfew. Coverdale was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and was made subject to a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order to restrict his activities and protect the public.

During the proceedings, the prosecution highlighted the particularly young age of some victims in the images, emphasising the severity of the material. Coverdale's guilty pleas were noted as a mitigating factor, but the court stressed the need for ongoing monitoring given the volume and nature of the content. The case was reported by the News & Star, with details emerging from court records at Carlisle Crown Court.