He had tried to ‘conceal’ the device from them
Sex offender Leslie Jones(Image: Hull Live)
A convicted sex offender who threw away a chance to avoid prison – and was again found with large numbers of indecent videos and images of young girls – has finally been jailed. Leslie Jones at first tried to talk his way out of trouble when police arrived at his home but officers found a tablet computer that he had tried to keep quiet about and “conceal” from them, a court heard.
Jones, 59, of Haven Road, Barton, admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order on June 16. He also admitted three offences of making indecent images of children and another of possessing prohibited images of children, between February 3 and June 16.
Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting, told Hull Crown Court that Jones was living in Barton at the time of the offences. Police received information that an internet user had been involved with a file sharing programme for child sexual abuse.
Jones was known to be a registered sex offender after he was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order at Hull Crown Court on October 28. Police went to a house and he was asked if he had any items other than a mobile phone.
He replied “No” but a tablet device was found in a bedroom. He had earlier tried to conceal it from the police. It was found to contain 45 videos of young girls, three of them lengthy, in the most serious Category A.
There were 62 Category B images, 60 of them videos, and 1,025 in Category C, including 18 videos. There were two prohibited images of children. “There was no distribution,” said Miss Stuart-Lofthouse.
Jones had convictions for nine previous offences, including wounding in 1999, drink-driving, producing drugs and breaching a community order. On October 28, he was given a 14-month suspended prison sentence, 150 hours’ unpaid work and 25 days’ rehabilitation.
Jones was given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and had to register as a sex offender for 10 years. He had admitted three offences of making indecent images of children and others of possessing prohibited images of children and possessing extreme pornography images of bestiality between April 19, 2021 and December 19, 2022.
Julia Baggs, mitigating, said that, after his earlier court appearance in October, Jones lost his job and his home. “He was receiving abuse out in the street and he became reclusive,” said Miss Baggs.
He had completed all but seven-and-a-half hours of his unpaid work. “He did start to find some paid employment out of the area,” said Miss Baggs.
It was “deeply disappointing” that Jones had committed new offences. He had been in custody on remand since the new matters came to light. “He has had difficulties settling in to prison,” said Miss Baggs.
Jones was jailed for two years. The prison term included a consecutive nine months for breaching the suspended sentence. His phone and tablet will be forfeited and he must register as a sex offender for 10 years.
At the previous hearing in October, the court was told that Jones, then living in Dundee Street, west Hull, was caught with a “sordid collection” of thousands of indecent images of young children after “deliberately” using search terms such as “Lolita” to hunt them out and download them. He later tried to pretend that the images ended up on his computer equipment by accident but this was branded a “lie” and he was told: “Nobody has that many accidents.”
The court heard that police went to the home of Jones on March 14, 2023 and seized a mobile phone, a tablet and a laptop computer. There were indecent images of children, including videos, on all of them.
There were 813 in Category A, 562 in Category B and 5,996 in Category B. They included videos and search terms such as “Lolita”. There were also 478 prohibited images of children and three images of extreme pornography.
The ages of the girls featured in the images included five, six, eight, nine and 11. During police interview, Jones denied distributing the images or having a sexual interest in children.
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