Coronation Street actor Eric Potts has avoided jail after pleading guilty to child sex offences and will be placed on the sex offenders register.
The 61-year-old, who played Diggory Compton in the soap, was arrested in August after Lancashire Police found that an internet user had uploaded an 'indecent video of a child' to a file-sharing website.
Police Raid and Charges
Police raided his home of 20 years in Bacup, Lancashire, where a total of 83 videos and pictures were discovered on his iPad. He was charged with three offences of making indecent images of a child and three offences of distributing indecent images of a child.
Potts pleaded guilty to all charges and was handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, according to The Sun. He is banned from being alone with any boy under the age of 16, but will not spend time in jail, as he was given a 26-month prison sentence, suspended for 30 months.
Judge's Remarks
Judge Daniel Prowse told him: 'Some of these images and videos featured children as young as 11 or 12.'
'Each of these children in these videos is a real child somewhere in the world and each of them is either being required to abuse another child or is themselves being sexually abused.'
'Make no mistake, these images that you have were of children being sexually abused and the impact on them is magnified when these images are shared.'
Seven of the images were Category A, the most serious classification and often includes penetrative sexual activity. A further 16 were in Category B, and 60 were Category C.
Further Details
Prowse added: 'A conversation between you and another man on the application Telegram was also discovered and, in what is a sexually explicit conversation, you say you are attracted to teenage boys around the ages of 15 and 16.'
The court heard how Potts, who was married for 38 years and had two children, now uses a walking stick after two failed suicide attempts following his arrest.
