A paedophile pensioner, 82, who was caught with more than 75,000 child abuse images has been spared jail because of his age.
When he was arrested, Louis Rumis, 82, boasted that he ‘enjoyed’ looking at the images, which included depraved videos of babies as young as six months old being abused.
Police raided his house in the wealthy village of Everton, near Lymington, and found dozens of SD cards, hard drives and storage devices containing the child sex abuse images.
His stash was so large that officers gave up counting it all.
Rumis continued to download images even after his house was raided and told officers that he ‘enjoyed doing it’.
He previously admitted three charges of possession of indecent images, which included 4,091 of the most serious Category A images, including 232 videos, 10,445 Category B images and 60,787 Category C images.
A judge at Southampton Crown Court in Hampshire handed him an 18-month suspended sentence and told him to expect no mercy if he commits more offences.
Judge Nigel Peters KC told Rumis that if he had been younger, he would have been sent to prison.
Judge Peters told the court: ‘Only two factors are keeping you out of prison – your plea of guilty and your age. Had you been somewhat younger, I would have found it very difficult not to send you to prison.
‘If you find yourself in court again, you must expect the judge to show no mercy.’
Oliver Hirsch, prosecuting, said that police raided Rumis’ home in Everton in April 2024.
The leafy village in the New Forest National Park has an average house value of more than £500,000.
In his police interview, Rumis said that he had not paid for the images and that he considered the child abuse images to be ‘child porn’.
Police searched his property again and found even more images of all three categories on May 19, 2025.
The officers eventually gave up counting the number of images involved, and in a subsequent police interview, Rumis admitted he continued to watch them and enjoyed doing it.
Ed Wylde, mitigating, has now said: ‘He’s ashamed of where he finds himself.. He is truly sorry. There’s a real prospect of rehabilitation.’
Sentencing Rumis, who had no previous convictions, Judge Peters referred to the ‘huge volume’ of material found on the defendant’s laptops and mobile phones.
He told him: ‘You were up to no good even after you had been released on bail.’
As well as receiving a suspended sentence, Rumis was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and he must complete 30 rehabilitation requirement days.
He must also pay a £150 victim surcharge.
The judge continued: ‘If it wasn’t for people like him, children wouldn’t be abused.
‘They are taken off the streets and given loads of sweets and pocket money to perform terrible acts.’
