Bridgerton and 1917 actor spared jail despite being caught with huge trove of child abuse photos
30 June 2023, 15:54 | Updated: 30 June 2023, 16:00
A Bridgerton and 1917 actor will not be sent to prison, despite being found with hundreds of images of child abuse, featuring victims as young as 5.
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Kieren Curran, who worked as an extra on both productions, downloaded the photos and traded them on Instagram.
He was arrested in July 2021 when police raided his home, acting on intelligence about the vile Instagram account.
Curran, who was with his girlfriend, is said to have asked officers when he was arrested: "Could we skip this bit?"
Police found 293 images of sexual abuse on his laptop, phone and USB sticks - including images with children between the age of five and 14 years old.
Curran was charged with seven offences after two years spent on bail.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, at Harrow Crown Court on Thursday.
Curran, who works in West End theatres, claimed that he thought the images were of teenagers, not young children.
His lawyer said that he had only downloaded a "relatively small" amount of abuse images.
She explained: "His memory of what it was is mainly teenage children and not primary age children.
"Although he does not dispute what the counts set out, certainly his memory was of teenagers as opposed to very young children."
She added that Curran, of Ealing in west London, hated himself for what he had done, and had tried to kill himself.
She said that he had been bullied at school and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder - and that accessing the images was a kind of self-harm.
In his final remarks, Judge Kaplan said: "I must leave you in no doubt of the serious nature of these type of offences and make it very clear to you that I think you now accept these are most certainly not victimless crimes and the court is most concerned about the nature and number of photographs in these offences."
Curran was ordered to pay £494 in legal costs, to do 40 hours of unpaid work, 30 days of rehabilitation, and complete the Horizon programme for internet sexual offenders.
