Roger Spackman

Roger Spackman, a male transvestite, was convicted at Exeter Crown Court in June 2020 of five charges; possessing a prohibited image of a child, possessing extreme pornographic images portraying a sexual act with an animal and three counts of making an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child.

The court heard there were 290,672 illegal images found on 68 electronic devices in Spackman’s home, of which only about an eighth were analysed, requiring 100 hours of categorisation by the Paedophile Online Investigation Team and the SWF Data Forensic Unit. Spackman was identified as a member of an online chatroom for paedophiles who exchanged images and sexual fantasies involving children.

Spackman, 50, who worked for Devon’s child protection services for 12 years and was a Labour councillor at his arrest in 2017, was jailed for ten months, suspended for two years, with 40 days rehabilitation for possessing the ‘astonishing’ number of images. The appalling collection included the most serious category A images which depicted the rape of a 12 year old child and others of category B and C. Spackman began downloading the images in 2008 during his 10 years working full time in a secure children’s home.

Spackman’s barrister told the court that ‘He likes to pretend he is a young girl who will be abused. He will pretend to be a young girl.’ Autopedophilia, or sexual arousal by the idea of being a child, has been described by psychologists as a paraphilia in men who have a sexual interest in children.

Spackman appears to have convinced the judge that he was undertaking some form of ‘therapeutic’ role play in which he played the part of a victim of child sexual abuse and other members of the paedophile network sent him indecent photographs to assist in the role play.

Between 2007 and 2010, Spackman was Branch Secretary of the Devon County Council branch of UNISON, the public service union. He also chaired Exeter Labour Group between 2010 and 2014.

Image via Women Are Human