A respected designer has been jailed for four years for amassing a collection of more than 300,000 indecent images of children.
Geoffrey Hollington, 67, widely known as Geoff, used to live in Chatsworth Road, Brighton, and live and work in Wellington Road, Portslade, before moving to Worthing a few years ago.
He has a long and distinguished career as a designer which included creating the last classic Parker Pen before the headquarters at Newhaven closed.
He lived and worked in London until moving to Lewes 16 years ago with his wife and children. In the past few years he has been brought before the courts for accumulating child pornography and breaching restrictions placed on him.
Hollington was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years in April 2014 at Brighton Crown Court after he admitted a series of similar offences. They included having child pornography and extreme images.
Months later, in November 2014, giving his profession as architect, he was made bankrupt at Brighton County Court.
Last Friday (29 July) at Chichester Crown Court he was jailed, having already pleaded guilty to the latest offences. He was served with a sexual harm prevention order. This is intended to restrict his access to children and computers.
He was also ordered to attend a sex offenders treatment programme and he will be registered as a sex offender for ten years on his release from prison.
The court was told that more than 200 of the 300,000-plus images of children were in the most serious category.
Hollington, of Heene Terrace, Worthing, was also in breach of a sexual offences prevention order and his suspended sentence.
Sussex Police said that he was jailed as the result of an intelligence-led investigation by officers from the Sussex Police Paedophile On-Line Investigation Team (POLIT).
The force said: “There was no evidence of any ‘contact’ offending and no evidence that any of the images were of local children.”
Detective Constable Kenny Stark, of POLIT, said: “Hollington had already been convicted and had been given one chance by the courts but did not stop his online activity. However, we detected this and were soon able to arrest him again.
“This case sends a further message to those who in effect perpetuate this abuse by viewing such appalling images, that they never know when we will knock on their door and bring them before the courts, and that repeat offenders like Hollington can be tracked down too.”
I feel great empathy for his family and for the victims of his activities – I do however wonder what the story behind this offending is, what was this man thinking and how had he justified his own behaviour to himself? I want to understand …. I don’t understand how this behaviour begins and develops …I work as a Counsellor but how offenders justify to themselves their own behaviour still surprises me each time.
I would like ton know too. I worked with him for 15. years and went on business trips with him. My husband and I went to dinner regularly with him and his wife. He did sexually harass me on one trip over the course of two weeks and I felt that we had resolved it and I wasn’t going to be put out of a job by him so I fronted it and carried on as normal. He appeared to be a very intelligent, talented man with a great sense of humour. God knows what happened . I have so many confused emotions over this and as I only found out the extent of his depravity two days ago feel very low as a result. He is now where he deserves to be. Not for lone enough though.
Jane, I remember you from my often visits to the Hollington and Associates in the Old School House in London. I was with Herman Miller and worked closely with Geoff, Peter Pfanner and Brian Watson( as memory serves me). I too am very surprised by this as well as by your own personal experience. Geoff always seemed to be a very moral person and a loyal family oriented man. ( I was usually called Mac )
I remember you Jane.. I was a Kingston student as well, and at one point went on date with Geoff.. it didn’t go well and I felt pressurised to stay the night with him, but didn’t. I visited the studio where you worked with him for an interview later down the line. Something felt a bit off with him and I couldn’t put a name to it. Sorry for your experience.
I am also shocked to hear about this. I worked as his Secretary from the early days of Hollington Associates in Belsize Park. I met his wife who was his Secretary before me and worked with him at his home in Highgate and finally at The Old School House off Old Street. I remember Jane too, we didn’t get on, but I had a good working relationship with Geoff for years. I can only presume that something bad happened in his life that led him to take this evil path. I hope he is now in a better place