Lee Rouse, a spanking fetishist Exmouth Paedophile, addicted to child abuse imagery, has been incarcerated following the discovery of his 16,000-item collection in a concealed safe by law enforcement.
Lee Rouse stored a USB stick and a removable hard disc in a lockable case in his bedroom, crafted to resemble a huge book.
Authorities forcibly opened the safe after discovering literature concerning the corporal treatment of children during a search of his residence in Exmouth earlier this year.
Lee Rouse possesses three prior convictions for downloading child exploitation material from the internet and confessed to a probation officer his addiction to films and images depicting the abuse of young girls.
Lee Rouse changed his name from Lidio Morrineau after being released from his most recent jail sentence but was still on licence and subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which allowed to police to check on him at any time.
They were called to his home after he had a bust-up with his brother and found the safe and the spanking literature in his room. Previous checks had found nothing on his computer because he was downloading the abuse images onto the removeable drives.
There were 16,281 items on them but forensic experts only analysed 1,017 of them before concluding they had enough evidence to prosecute.
Lee Rouse’s collection showed children as young as two suffering serious abuse, with some items showing children being ‘chastised’.
There were 231 movies and 140 still images in the worst category, which showed acts amounting to child rape. Just under half of the material fell into the lowest category and showed nudity or sexual posing.
Lee Rouse has previous convictions from 2004, 2013 and 2021 and has twice been found with child mannequins dressed as little girls.
Lee Rouse, aged 52, of Withycombe Park Drive, Exmouth, admitted three counts of possession of indecent images of children and one of possessing a Samurai sword as an offensive weapon.
He was jailed for two years and two months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court and made subject of a new, tighter, Sexual Harm Prevention order for ten years. It includes all known forms of digital storage.
The judge told him: “You had been downloading images from the internet for a considerable period of time. You last accessed them not long before the police came calling and found the concealed safe in which you had hidden two digital devices.
“That concealment was a step you have taken to minimise the risk of being caught. The probation report says you admit to having an addiction to accessing and downloading such images and that you acknowledge a sexual attraction to under age girls.”
Mr Thomas Faulkner, prosecuting, said Lee Rouse’s brother called police on August 1 this year after an argument at their mother’s home. Officers carried out a thorough search and found the book-safe.
They also found literature in Lee Rouse’s bedroom about the physical punishment of children and seized a 74 cm long ceremonial sword. Nothing was found on his phone or laptop, which appeared as if it had been taken back to factory settings.
Mr Faulkner said: “He was asked about the safe and said he had lost the key and could not remember the last time he accessed it. He gave police permission to open it but said there was nothing inside.
“The aggravating factors in this case are his previous convictions and failure to comply with orders and the discernible distress of some of the victims as a result of chastisement. Some of the images depicted spankings of children.”
In all, there were 13 category A, six B, and seven C images on the USB and 16,281 images on the hard drive. Those which were examined were categorized as 231 movies and 140 images at A; 41 movies and 74 images at B and 75 movies and 457 images at C.
They had been downloaded between February 2019 and June 26 this year. Rouse told police he had forgotten about the book safe.
Miss Mary McCarthy. defending, said Lee Rouse is determined to overcome his problem and believes that he will have a better chance of doing so if he finds a job and stops drinking when he is released from jail.
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