Judge Shaun Smith handed comedian Christopher Thomas Binns, who has appeared on Channel 4’s “8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown,” a suspended sentence after he was convicted of possessing more than 35,000 indecent images of children.
Prosecutor Lauren Fisher said Binns was found with 104 “category A” indecent images, as 411 in category B and 34,946 that were classified as “category C.” Judge Smith noted some of the images may have been duplicates, according to Metro UK. Nevertheless, Binns will not serve any jail time. The images were all downloaded from March-November of 2020. Binns claimed the medications he was on at the time of the pandemic were to blame for his lapse of judgement.
BREAKING: TV comedian Christopher Thomas Binns who has appeared on Channel 4’s 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown has been spared jail after being found with more than 35,000 indecent images of children. pic.twitter.com/e5npVmyyMf
— The General (@GeneralMCNews) August 17, 2023
Binns pleaded guilty to five counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing a prohibited image in November.
Smith gave Binns a combined 10-month sentence, suspended for 15 months, and made him the subject of a sexual harm prevention order. Smith ordered Binns to register as a sex offender for a ten year period, according to Metro UK.
Judge Smith said Binns’ offenses were “simply unacceptable,” but ultimately did not consider him to be likely to re-offend or to be a risk to the public.
“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,” Binns said in a statement previously released to Comedy News.
“Within those downloads, it appears there was some child pornography which I had not sought out nor wanted,” he said.
He went on to plead his case.
‘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,” he said.
TV comedian Christopher Thomas Binns has been sentenced for possessing indecent images of children. https://t.co/to1Zhqcd8w
— ITV News Calendar (@itvcalendar) August 17, 2023
“You are sickened by what it was that you were downloading and looking at and, quite frankly, you don’t need me to tell you that you should be, because this kind of offending has real victims,” Smith said to Binns, according to Metro UK.
“It is right to say that had it not been for Covid, had it not been for the medication you were taking at that period of time, you would not be before the court, but the fact is that you are,” he said. (RELATED: R Kelly Gets 20 Year Sentence For Child Sex Crimes)
Binns was said to have stored thousands of images on multiple devices.
His crimes were discovered when the National Crime Agency received information that Binns’ email address had been used to upload multiple category C indecent images of children.
A warrant was executed at Binns’ address in Derbyshire, at which time he was arrested, and a total of 39 devices were seized, according to Metro UK.
Binns was featured in several TV shows including “The IT Crowd,” “Spooks and Knowing Me Knowing Yule” with Alan Partridge.