Leeds paedophile who shared abuse images on Snapchat tried to cover his crimes with phone reset

James Oates completed a factory reset of his phone to hide the evidence after sending the sick images and making sexual references about children as young as five.

Leeds Crown Court heard that West Yorkshire Police received intelligence in May of 2022 that an IP address linked to Oates’ home on St Anne’s Rise in Leeds had uploaded images through the social media app, Discord. Further images were uploaded to Snapchat in August 2022.

Police tried to arrest Oates, but he was in Scotland at the time. Having got wind of his impending arrest, he completed the factory reset of the phone and was looking into how to wipe his computer equipment.

But experts examined his devices and found that he had distributed the images to two others. They also found 24 category A images - the most serious - along with 34 category B and 146 category C. There were also 23 prohibited images, prosecutor Zarreen Alam-Cheetham told the court. He fully admitted his crimes when he was interviewed by police. He said he sent three images to the two people, whom he said he knew.

He admitted three counts of making indecent images, one count of distributing images, and one of possessing prohibited images.

The 37-year-old, of The Vale, Meanwood, has no previous convictions. No mitigation was offered by his barrister after Judge Robin Mairs said he would not lock him up.

Judge Mairs said: “You had reset your phone and were investigating how to reformat the computer equipment you had. They were fairly young children involved. These are real children that are caused real and irreparable harm. They are made to satisfy people like you.”

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He acknowledged that Oates had enrolled on the Safer Lives course for sex offenders and had been “full and frank” since his arrest.

He gave him a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, 55 rehabilitation days, a six-month alcohol treatment requirement and ordered to take part in an accredited sex offender programme.

He was put on the sex offender register for 10 years and a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), to limit his internet use, will be imposed at a later date.