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How Inform Plus works with men arrested, cautioned and/or convicted for online offences involving child sexual abuse material

In the digital age, the internet offers vast resources and opportunities for learning, entertainment, and communication. However, it also harbours dark corners where illicit activities, such as the creation, distribution and consumption of indecent images of children (also known as child sexual abuse material).

A lot has been written about “The Knock”; the moment the police arrive at an individual’s door to arrest them for viewing illegal online images. In this article one of the participants in Circles South West’s Inform Plus programme recounts his story.

“Daniel”

In March 2022 I had a knock at the door and that’s when everything started… and everything stopped. It was an enormous shock, even though you know that potentially it could happen, it’s still a shock when it does.

You kind of go into autopilot and it’s almost an out of body experience, I had never been in any trouble with the police before. I went to my interview and then I was released to my parents’ home, which I was very fortunate to be able to do. But that was my relationship over, the relationship with my children, over.

They give you some leaflets at the police station and so almost straight away I set about getting in touch with organisations that I could get some help. One of which was Circles and another was Lucy Faithfull – I learned about Inform Plus.

It was useful to be able to do something because I was without a job now and had no contact with my family. Having something to do that felt productive really helped. I applied to Circles and although it was some time before I heard back it was a great relief when Jamie Stephenson contacted me, just to have someone who understood the process and who I could talk to. We arranged to meet and it was terrifying, I hadn’t spoken about my offending to anyone outside of my immediate family. Jamie was knowledgeable and friendly and even in that initial chat I learned more about things like court and the criminal justice system and it allowed to me to think about things I hadn’t really thought about.

Inform Plus

Being offered a place on the course was a relief, because I knew it was going to offer me vital assistance in moving forward.

I had no idea what to expect when I went to my first meeting. I had a real fear there would be people with placards outside the venue. Jamie was there with biscuits, which was sort of surreal, and I scoped out the other people in attendance and they all looked so normal. There was a mixture of people there, most had been through the Criminal Justice system but there were others who hadn’t and were in the same position that I was.

The programme itself was the best thing that happened, it was just fantastic, because we had both peer support and professional support. We could ask questions and it was a combination of information about the Criminal Justice system and giving us the space to talk about our internet offending and really think about it. Particularly with the peer support hearing someone’s else opinion makes you question your own. Even if someone else says the same thing that you’re thinking, it makes you say: “is it though?” Sometimes we can question someone else and it’s easier than questioning yourself.

I needed to get as much information as possible and so I engaged as much as I could. Learning about what might happen, what will happen and that there is a way through it was really helpful. You will come out the other side of this and, although things won’t be the way you want them to, you will come out. The uncertainty about the future was the scariest thing.

The sessions covered all different topics and we were questioned throughout it, never interrogated, but asked honest questions about why the offending happened and how we thought about different things. You had to individually participate, there was no skating over things and saying “I agree with the others”.

Using the Good Lives Model was an extremely useful tool. With time to reflect I found that actually some of the things I thought I had in my life, I didn’t, and that gap was where my offending came in – to fill the void.

Everything was done so carefully there was no time when I felt I had to get out of there, even though we were having to deal with the very difficult subject of our offending. It’s a hugely important thing to acknowledge your offending; it wasn’t done in a light and fluffy way but at the same time it wasn’t lecturing or “we’re going to make you suffer” kind of way.

I travelled an hour and a half every week for 11 weeks but I didn’t want to miss out on the course. The things that you can’t get from a website is human contact; to ask an opinion, get feedback.

After Inform Plus

Since the course ended a year ago, I am still with my parents and they and my family have been supportive. My cousin is very honest and frank and that is very helpful. I got a job; it was minimum wage and out of my comfort zone from my usual career but it is a job. I managed to get a job without needing a reference although I did explain that leaving my last job wasn’t my choice.

For a long time, I lived in fear that the police were going to turn up to arrest me. I knew if it got out, I would be in danger. It was exhausting to live in a heightened state for those first few months and it made me realise that all my family would have experienced the same, especially my ex-wife.

I had no qualms taking my punishment, I was not going to make any excuses, nobody made me offend – I chose to do that and I needed to own that. But they didn’t do anything to deserve that and they were caught up in it

Without family support I don’t know how it would have been; I was given leaflets when I was released but I wouldn’t have had anywhere to go. While people are vulnerable, they are more likely to do stupid things. And without Inform Plus there are so many things I wouldn’t have known. They showed me what the stages would be during the process.

I also completed the Aurora Project which allowed me to continue to acknowledge my offending and not put it behind me and pretend it was a different person that did it. I am now speaking out to others to tell them about the programme and how my life has changed since my offending was discovered.

Inform Plus is a wonderful programme that has helped me immeasurably and I would urge people in the same situation as me to reach out and get the help offered.

You can learn more about the Inform Plus programme here