The Labour Party in Calderdale was been plunged into a crisis as their lead candidate, and former Mayor of Hebden Royd, Stewart Brown, was arrested on suspicion of child porn offences.
Brown, the former mayor & Labour councillor escaped jail after being convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography. Stewart Brown, 60, admitted 21 offences of possessing indecent images of children and one of distributing pictures. Brown, of Nutclough, Hebden Bridge, admitted all the charges, some of which were said to relate to images of girls as young as three.
In 2006 he was mayor of Hebden Royd and was also a Labour councillor.
Brown, of Nutclough, Hebden Bridge, admitted all the charges, some of which were said to relate to images of girls as young as three. The charges date back to April 2008 when police investigators working online found a free file-sharing website, which prosecutor Michael Collins described as a forum where users could post images of girls in school uniforms for others to see and comment on.
By tracing an address from where some images were uploaded, Officers were led to Brown, who had been accessing the site under the username Teensrace. He had distributed 10 photos which fell under level one guidelines relating to child pornography, meaning they depicted erotic posing but no sexual activity.
He had distributed 10 photographs which fell under level one guidelines, the lowest level of severity relating to child pornography.
A police search of Brown's home uncovered 1,232 indecent images and videos of children on his computer hard drive and on CDs.
Brown, who is now retired, also admitted cutting and pasting a picture from a 12-year-old girl's social networking site and uploading it to the internet without her consent.
Brown pleaded guilty to 21 offences of possessing indecent images of children and a further charge of distributing pictures. The court heard that six of the images found in Brown's possession were listed as level five, the worst grade of child pornography.
Det Con John Higgins, of the Abusive Images Unit at West Yorkshire Police, told the court a lot of the children in the pictures appeared to be in "some distress".
Paul Bryaning, mitigating for Brown, told the court his client had been left with suicidal tendencies since being charged.
Judge Alistair McCallum told Brown "There's very little that I can say that can add to the misery that you have brought on yourself."
Stewart Brown, 60, admitted 21 offences of Possessing Indecent Images of Children and one of Distributing Pictures.
At Leeds Crown Court he was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years, and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.