Leeds paedophile locked up after being caught downloading child porn for THIRD time

Marc Barrett, 37, was locked up for two years after he ignored court orders and continued access abusive images.

Police executed a search warrant at the sex offender’s home in Armley last year to carry out checks on him.

Carmel Pearson, prosecuting, said Barrett began acting suspiciously and tried to hide computer equipment and a USB stick.

Electronic equipment was seized from the property and analysed by forensic officers.

The court heard 25 still and moving images were recovered. Eleven of the images were at category A - the most serious level of offending.

A total of 85 images were found to have been deleted.

Barrett had used internet search terms referring to sexual images of 11 and 12 year old girls.

Barrett, of Whingate Avenue, Armley, pleaded guilty to three offences of making indecent images of children and one of breach of a sexual offences prevention order.

The court heard Barrett was given an 18-month prison sentence in 2014 for offences of making distributing indecent child images.

He was back before the court in March 2017 for further offences of possessing illegal child images.

Barrett was made the subject of a community order on that occasion and told to take part in a rehabilitation programme designed to stop him re-offending.

Anthony Farrell, mitigating, said Barrett began offending again when he was forced to leave his family home over his previous offending.

Mr Farrell said Barrett accessed the images after returning to gambling and abusing alcohol when he became isolated.

Judge Penelope Belcher said: “It is extremely concerning that these are your third set of convictions for these offences.

“You are kidding yourself if you think there is no sexual gratification involved in you downloading these images.”

Barrett, a former Ikea worker, was arrested back in 2014 after he allowed others to gain access to his collection of more than 12,000 child porn images.

He was caught during an operation by the National Crime Agency aimed at those who used online file sharing to distribute abusive images of children.

Officers executed a search warrant at Barrett’s then family home on Fairfax Avenue, Drighlington, and discovered the images after seizing computer equipment.