A YOUTH worker has admitted to making indecent images of children on what should have been the first day of his trial at court.
Jason O’Hanlon, 24, pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children when he appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday after an investigation led to his arrest and subsequent charge last year.
O’Hanlon, of Beech Road, Wath, was sentenced and given a two-year conditional discharge, a five-year sexual harm prevention order and placed on the sex offenders register for two years.
His computer equipment, where the images were found, was also ordered to be destroyed.
He had worked at Team Katalyst, which had centres in Barnsley town centre and in Rotherham offering dance, cheerleading, parkour and musical theatre skills sessions for children and young people.
It closed in January shortly after one of its former directors Richard Codd was convicted of possessing child abuse images.
Investigating officer DC Rachel Watts said: “Making indecent images of children is an inexcusable and deplorable crime and will not be tolerated.
“Our priority is to protect vulnerable members of society and we have a number of ongoing operations around the protection of children.
“O’Hanlon will be monitored by South Yorkshire Police’s Violent and Sex Offender Register (VISOR) team, and should he break the law again, he will be back before the courts and faces a custodial sentence.”
O’Hanlon was arrested in 2017 after officers received information to suggest he had been looking at indecent images on his computer.
An investigation was launched and a safeguarding plan put in place working alongside Rotherham Borough Council’s Children and Young People’s Service.
O’Hanlon’s PC was seized and forensically examined, which resulted in a number of images being discovered and a clear indication he had been making the images.
He was charged in September 2017 and appeared at Sheffield Crown Court in November where he entered a not guilty plea to all three charges, and a trial date at court was set for April 2018, where on Tuesday he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced.
