A York businessman has been given a suspended prison sentence after police found more than 10,000 indecent images of children on his company laptop.

Richard Paskauskas, 64, is also now a registered sex offender following his conviction on four charges by a jury at York Crown Court earlier this year.  He had denied all charges against him and is appealing against the convictions.

The jury heard his video wall hire company has bases in London, Birmingham and York, an annual turnover of £2.5 million and employs 12 staff as well as outside contractors.

It was also told police found 10,345 indecent images of children, including 2,292 of category A, the worst category – and some extreme pornography, on a work laptop officers seized at his home in 2023.

Paskauskas was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court this week to a 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he does 30 days’ rehabilitative activities. 

He was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order which restricts his use of the internet and enables police to monitor him for 10 years and must also register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Paskauskas, of Pasture Lane, Heworth, was convicted  of three charges of having indecent images of children and one of having extreme pornography. He is appealing against his convictions.

York Crown Court heard as well as the category A images there were 1,652 of the middle category and 6,401 of the lowest category, Category C.  According to a police forensic expert, they had been put on the computer between June 27, 2006, and February 26, 2016, and some of them were not easily accessible.

The police expert found evidence that some of them had been accessed close to times when Paskaauskas’ user profile on the computer was active sending emails.  The computer had been bought in 2006.

Paskauskas claimed in evidence that other people in the company had access to his user profile and associated password that enabled them to use the laptop.

The laptop had not been used during the six months it had been at his home. He had collected it after going down to London on company business.