A pensioner who was being monitored following a conviction for possessing indecent images of children was found to have downloaded more at his home in Marsh.
David Croft, 68, was sentenced to a three-year community order at Bradford Crown Court in 2010 for having more than 39,000 images and was made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).
Peter Byrne, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court that Croft was also placed on the sex offender’s register and following the conviction he was visited on occasions at his home in Marsh by a public protection review officer.
On August 15, 2013 the officer asked to examine a laptop and found on the internet history the name Angelina which brought up a photo of a girl aged approximately 12 in a model pose which, although not indecent, she considered breached the restrictions imposed under Croft’s SOPO and noticed it had been viewed about three weeks earlier.
Croft admitted looking for search terms such as ‘nymph’ and ‘teens’ and accepted there might be some pictures of girls “probably naked.” She asked him to shut down the laptop and contacted the police who seized two laptops.
They were subsequently examined and on one 1,851 indecent still images of children were found which had been created between November 9, 2012 and July 26, 2013.
The images included 127 at Category A, the most serious, 65 at Category B and 1659 at Category C. The examining expert also discovered on one laptop soft-wear designed to hide any deletions.
Matthew Harding, representing Croft, said although the images were found in 2013 the case had not reached crown court for a further two years. He had denied some of the allegations for a time leading to some delay before he pleaded guilty but in the three years since the discovery there had been no further offending.
The probation service believed they could work further with him.
Croft, of Croft House Lane, Marsh, admitted three breaches of the Sexual Offences Prevention Order and 21 of making indecent images. He was sentenced to a total of 12 months in prison suspended for two years with a community order and 60 days rehabilitation activity. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Judge Neil Clark told Croft had he been before the court soon after the offences were discovered he would have jailed him immediately but because of the unexplained delay in the case he had improved his situation by no further offending.
“You committed what are serious offences, court orders are there to be obeyed and people who breach them normally go to prison.”
He said viewing such images contributed to the abuse of the children depicted.
