Ex-councillor Martin Fisher jailed for child pornography
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A
former Sheriff of Canterbury has been sent to prison today after
admitting indecently assaulting a vulnerable youngster and
downloading child pornography.
Ex councillor Martin Fisher, 61, later told one police officer:
"Some people like Picasso..I like pictures of children with no
clothes on."
The paedophile pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court to five
charges, including two sexual assaults on an adult and 11 charges
of downloading disgusting images of children - including one
depicting sado-masochism on a child.
Fisher, from Queen's Road, was told by Judge Adele Williams he
had a "deviant sexual interest in children" who had shown no
insight about the effect on his victim.
Fisher, who ran his own insurance business in Sittingbourne, was
jailed for a total of 15 months and banned him from working with
children for 10 years.
The sentence was the culmination of a 15-month long
investigation by the East Kent Public Protection Unit, based at
Canterbury Police Station.
Investigating officer, Detective Constable Richard Allen, said:
"This was a joint investigation with Kent Social Services in which
Kent Police took the lead.
"We arrested Fisher in April 2010 after one of his victims
reported the offences. During the course of the investigation
computers, video cameras and cameras were seized from Fisher's home
in Whitstable and his business address in Sittingbourne.
"We found indecent images of children and paedophilic stories
that had been downloaded from the internet both on his home and
business computers. Paper copies of indecent images were found in
the office at his home and copies of paedophilic stories were
discovered underneath his bedside cabinet.
"When Fisher was arrested and interviewed he admitted accessing
and printing the images and stories but he said he didn't accept
they were indecent - he felt they were artistic.
Throughout police interviews Fisher denied the sexual assaults,
but changed his plea to guilty at a court hearing on June 20.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham, head of CID at East
Kent, paid tribute to Fisher's victims, who, he said, had been
prepared to give evidence against Fisher, should there have been a
trial.
He also paid tribute to officers at the Public Protection Unit
for carrying out a meticulous investigation: "Thanks to their
dedication and thoroughness a damning case was built up against
Fisher," he said.
"Throughout the investigation Fisher refused to accept that he
was sexually interested in children, despite using search engines
on his computers to look for sites specifically involving sex with
children. He maintained that indecent pictures and explicit
paedophilic stories were 'art'.
"He has also since claimed that he pleaded guilty to save his
victims the trauma of going to court and that he was also a victim
in the case.
"We wholeheartedly dispute that. Hopefully, following today's
sentence, he now understands that this behaviour is not acceptable
and the only victims in this case are the people he sexually
assaulted.
"I also hope that the case shows other victims that Kent Police
will do everything in its power to bring offenders like Fisher to
justice," DCI Fotheringham said.
Alongside the 15 month sentence Fisher will stay on the sex
offenders' register for 10 years. He was also given a sexual
offences prevention order, banning him from working with children
for 10 years.
Thursday, July 21 2011
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