Tring man jailed for downloading indecent images of children

Simon James, age 41, of Frogmore Street, Tring, appeared at St Albans Crown Court on Friday, July 5.

At St Albans Magistrates’ Court on May 14, he had pleaded guilty to three charges of downloading indecent images between March 2018 and October 2018, as well as breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

On October 29, 2018, officers attended James’ address as part of his conditions of a sexual harm prevention order that he had been served in March 2017.

He had been convicted of three counts of downloading indecent images or pseudo images of children, two counts of possession of indecent images of children and two counts of possession of extreme pornography.

Following his conviction in March 2017, he was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years.

The court heard that as officers arrived at James’ address in October of last year, he was reluctant to let them in.

Another resident opened a communal door before James decided to invite the officers in. He handed over his mobile phone as part of his sexual harm prevention order and officers were concerned by sexually explicit messages they found on there.

The phone was subsequently seized and upon closer examination, a number of indecent images were found.

In total, the phone was found to have two images at Category A, three images at Category B and six images at Category C. Category A is the most severe.

A list of search terms were also found on the phone including ‘child nude’ and ‘preteen girls nude’. James was arrested on January 16, 2019.

Management of Sexual and Violent Offenders Officer Annabelle Springall, from the Public Protection Unit, said: “I hope this sentence reassures the public that we will do all we can to stop people like James from acting on their disturbing urges.”

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “James continued to view and download abusive images of children suffering disgusting abuse despite a previous conviction.

“It is therefore essential that he receives effective treatment while in custody to help prevent any further offences.

“The war on indecent images continues and it is not only up to the police to solve the problem.

"We need tech companies and Government to do more to prevent this vile material being distributed – and to ensure it can be quickly removed when it does appear online.”