Sobbing paedophile jailed for downloading abuse images for a second time

Liam Lindsay broke down in tears when the judge at Leeds Crown Court ordered he serve a 12-month sentence.

The court was told that police were sent intelligence in February 2019 that illegal images were being downloaded to a phone number associated with Lindsay, who was already known to them.

They arrested him at his home on Ambleside Road in Castleford, seizing a mobile phone which was found to have nearly 170 images stored, ranging from Category A - the most serious - to Category C.

He had also deleted his internet history and a Kik application, used to transfer files.

This put him in breach of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) that was imposed in December 2015, after he was convicted of 11 offences of downloading indecent images.

Prosecutor Michael Greenhalgh said Lindsay received an eight-week jail term on that occasion, suspended for three years, along with a seven-year SHPO designed to curb his internet use.

After his arrest in 2019, he denied the the offences and was set for trial.

The 32-year-old failed to turn up this year for his trial and was subsequently arrested and taken into custody.

Appearing in court this week via video link from HMP Leeds where he was being held on remand, he admitted three counts of downloading the images, and breaching his SHPO.

He also admitted two breaches of the terms of the sex offenders registers by failing to notify a change of address, after he was caught living at a home on Moorfield Crescent in Hemsworth.

Mitigating, Anastasis Tasou said: “He really has a history of burying his head in the sand and hoping everything will go away.”

But he said Lindsay had been “failed by the system” after he was never given the opportunity to take part in an accredited programme to address his offending and asked the judge to spare him jail.

But Judge Simon Phillips told Lindsay: “You have effectively not been deterred from offending.

"You have a sexual interest in children that continues. There’s a high risk of offending.”

Lindsay’s crying became more audible as the judge told him he must serve a jail, and gave him a new 10-year SHPO.