A postman who was sacked over child abuse images blamed a WhatsApp joke after he was hauled back to court over extreme pornography featuring a corpse and a fish. James Crispin, 45, who threw away his 20-year career at Royal Mail when he was let off with a suspended sentence in 2021, returned to Snaresbrook Crown Court on Tuesday (May 20), where he dodged jail again.
Crispin, of Lambourne Court in Havering, East London, was under surveillance as part of a seven-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) when the monitoring company reported disturbing internet activity to police in October 2023. When police seized the pervert’s phone, they found two extreme porn images, a Category C indecent image, and 12 prohibited images – including two cartoons of children.
When Crispin spoke to officers, he claimed he did not search for the indecent photos, but was looking at a discussion about AI on Twitter (now X) when he was redirected to the images, then stopped himself from going further. On the extreme pornography, which court documents show features a ‘trout’ and ‘sexual interference with a corpse’, Crispin claimed they were part of a sick WhatsApp joke.
Explaining his position, defence counsel claimed: “He was sent these in a WhatsApp group, and there is a risk of minimising it, but he was sent it as a joke and that was what was in the mind of the person who sent it. He was disgusted and did not want to see it. He would benefit from help with how to deal with that. It’s difficult to control what people send to you.”
As the offences were committed during the previous sentence of six months suspended for two years, for making indecent images of children, Crispin’s reoffending also put him in breach of the suspended sentence. He pleaded guilty to this offence on Tuesday.
In mitigation, Crispin’s barrister reiterated he was not actively searching for the content, and that the number of images was ‘relatively low’, apparently displaying his efforts to restrict his viewing of images since his last sentence. Crispin’s mental health also suffered after his last sentence, and he has restricted himself in his social activities due to the shame, added the barrister.
Sparing him prison, Judge Grace Amakye said Crispin’s response to probation supervision had been good, and that he would be given credit for his early guilty plea. Crispin will serve a 24-month community order, 60 days of rehabilitation, and 150 hours unpaid work.
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