A retired ship’s captain who refused to give police the password to his encrypted memory stick has been given a 15-month suspended prison sentence.
Jan Vidar Enevold, 69, had an “illustrious” career commanding cruise and cargo ships and serving in the Norwegian Navy, York Crown Court heard.
Christine Egerton, prosecuting, said police found 54 indecent images of children on his desktop tower and other computer equipment when they raided his York home in August 2015.
But he refused to give them the password to the encrypted memory stick, has still not given them the password and police are continuing their attempts to hack into it and discover its contents.
Enevold, of Stephenson Way, York, pleaded guilty to six charges of having indecent images of children, one of having extreme pornography and one of failure to disclose the memory stick’s password.
He was given a 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he does a sex offenders’ treatment programme, was put on the sex offenders’ register for ten years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order restricting his use of the internet for five years. He was also ordered to pay £1,925 prosecution costs.
Recorder Benjamin Nolan QC said Enevold had had an “illustrious” career at sea. He accepted that Enevold had now “forgotten” the password but said that the memory stick “undoubtedly” contained similar images to those found by the police.
He added that Enevold was “in denial”, that is, he refused to accept he was sexually interested in children.
Ms Egerton said the 54 images included videos and pictures of all three levels of seriousness from the most serious to the least serious.
Enevold had been asked on a number of occasions to provide the password and had not done so.
Neal Kutte, for Enevold, did not give any mitigation after the judge indicated that he would suspend the prison sentence.
The judge ordered the destruction of all the computer equipment seized from Enevold’s house that contained indecent images.
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Source: York Press
