Suspended sentence for comedian who downloaded child porn

Comedian Tom Binns has avoided jail after admitting possession of child pornography.

At Derby Crown Court today, Judge Shaun Smith KC handed the 53-year-old a ten-month prison term, suspended for 15 months.

He also handed Binns a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, placed him on the sex offender register for 10 years and ordered him to attend 40 rehabilitation sessions.

Passing sentence, Judge Smith acknowledged Binns found the images he downloaded ‘sickening’ and reminded him: ‘This kind of material has real victims.’

According to the Derby Telegraph, he added: ‘You are a man of previous good character, you have never been in trouble and it is right to say had it not been for Covid and the medication you were taking during that time you may well not have found yourself in this court or any other court.’

The comedian – best known for his hospital radio DJ character Ivan Brackenbury – had previously admitted five counts of making and one of possessing indecent images of children.

Binns  was identified by National Crime Agency investigators after the indecent images of children  were uploaded to a Google account in his name.

He was arrested at his Chesterfield home in November 2020. Three of his devices were seized, which forensic examination showed contained more than 9,000 images. The court heard  they found 104 of the most serious category A images which typically show children being raped and sexually abused, plus 411 category B, the remainder category C.

The comedian had also asked a family friend to sell several other devices on eBay, three of which contained more than 25,000 additional abuse images.

When interviewed, Binns denied viewing child pornography online but said he had watched adult pornography, saying the images must have been downloaded without his knowledge. However, examination of his devices showed they had been downloaded across a nine-month period in 2020.

In January, when details of his crimes became public, Binns told Chortle he would ‘take his punishment’ and claimed he had downloaded the images in error while under the influence of drugs for his ADHD.

He told this website: ‘Over two years ago, while under the influence of an overdose of prescription drugs for ADHD, which induced obsessive compulsive disorder, I downloaded and deleted a very large amount of adult pornography over a short period of time.

‘Within those downloads it appears there was some child pornography which I had not sought out nor wanted.

‘I have no sexual interest in children. I have taken and passed a polygraph stating I have no sexual interest in children.

‘I am bitterly upset at the hurt this has caused my family for which I take full responsibility. I will take my punishment for this and hope that my family are not further harmed by my actions.’

Today National Crime Agency operations manager Holly Triggs said: 'Tom Binns deliberately collected a huge number of indecent images of children. Behind each one is an abused child who has had their wellbeing, innocence and privacy violated.

'Demand for images is a major driver of child sexual abuse globally, so we at the NCA are unrelenting in our commitment to protecting children from sexual abuse and bringing serious offenders to justice.'

Binns is married to radio producer Liesl Soards. They made a podcast together, Chaotic Mother, about bringing up their children while living with ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The comedian had a six-part BBC One sitcom in 2017, Hospital People, based around Brackenbury and other characters, but he started his career as a real radio DJ, with stints on Radio 1, Virgin, BRMB and GLR, Talksport UK, Hallam FM and Key 103.

In 1999, London station Xfm was fined a then-record £50,000 over the use of ‘coarse sexual innuendo’ when Binns and a listener discussed bestial pornography during a phone-in on his breakfast show.

And in December 2009, Binns was fired from Birmingham-based BRMB after he cut short the Queen's Christmas message. It was played into his show in error, so he broke into her message by saying: ‘Two words: bore-ring’.

As a comic, he was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award 2007 for his Brackenbury character, and in 2013 was named best international act at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival.

He also performs as the comedy psychic Ian D Montfort, having learned the tricks of cold reading. A BBC Radio 2 series based around the character aired in 2013.

His other TV credits include  The IT Crowd, Spooks, Drifters, Fist of Fun and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

Published: 17 Aug 2023