A dad who was found with almost 200 indecent images of children has been spared jail.
Gigi Cimppoeru, 36, was arrested in December 2021 after Merseyside Police received information that a Facebook and Instagram account had accessed indecent images of children.
Using an IP address, those accounts were traced to a home on Whestone Lane, Wirral, where Cimppoeru was living with other men.
On December 16, police seized two mobile phones containing the images, the majority of which were on one of the phones.
The phones contained 194 images and videos relating to children, of these 114 of which were in Category A, which involves the most severe forms of abuse including child rape, including 111 videos. There were 44 at Category B including 37 videos and also admitted making 36 Category C images, of which 21 were videos.
Cimppoeru also admitted having "extreme pornography" images, involving people engaged in sexual activity with animals and five prohibited animated images.
In court, Judge Griffiths described the environment of the household he shared with other men as having “drinking and laddish behaviour”, with their evenings spent “drinking, chatting, going online and misbehaving in that regard.”
The court was told Cimppoeru has two children of his own and, as social services have implement an order that he could not be alone with his children, his wife has been forced to quit her job. Cimppoeru now has full-time employment in Birkenhead as a factory worker, which should continue.
The court heard that although creation dates of the content could not be established, police did confirm that the files had been modified, either by being saved, edited or moved, between October 2021, and December 2021. However, it was determined that there was no evidence that Cimppoeru deliberately saved any images himself.
Cimppoeru pleaded guilty to all six offences previously and his defence claimed he was “deeply ashamed” about his involvement and that his “naivety” had been shown in this incident.
Helen Dugdale, defending, said: “The defendant is deeply ashamed and is distressed about his involvement in these matters.
“He apologised profusely to the court and also the subject of the video and photographs. He is very much aware of how much damage that this can cause.”
When interviewed by Merseyside Police, Cimppoeru admitted to having joined chat groups and receiving images whilst drunk with the men he lived with, but that when he woke up the next day, he deleted them, and decided not to be involved again.
However, he received images on multiple occasions, via a secure messaging app.
On Thursday, December, 8 in Liverpool Crown Court, Cimppoeru was sentenced to 30 weeks imprisonment, which was suspended for 18 months. He was also given 150 hours of unpaid work in the community, and ordered to complete up to twenty rehabilitation days.
A sexual harm prevention order was also put in place for 10 years, and he will remain of the sex offenders register for 10 years. A deprivation order depriving him of his mobile phone was also enforced.
Judge Griffiths said: “I believe it is better to make a constructive sentence to treat your behaviour and avoid it happening in the future, simply so that will protect children in our society. If I’m wrong about that and you carry this on, you will certainly go to prison in the future.”