BUNGAY PAEDOPHILE JAILED FOR SHARING INDECENT IMAGE OF GIRL
A convicted sex offender shared his “fantasies” about an imaginary seven-year-old relative with undercover police officers, a court heard.The online behaviour of David Nelson showed that the 69-year-old still has a sexual interest in children, Ipswich Crown Court was told on Friday.
Nelson was once again before the court, joining the hearing remotely from the hospital wing of the prison to which he was remanded in March earlier this year.
In 2018, Nelson was found to have sexually assaulted a young girl, who the court heard on Friday was under 13, and to be in possession of sexual images of underage children.
A Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) was put in place indefinitely for the protection of others.
The order stipulated that Nelson, of Honeypot Meadow, Bungay, could not use any cloud or media storage platforms, or access any instant messaging sites or chatrooms.
Nelson was arrested after he unknowingly messaged undercover police officers on three different websites, which the court heard are commonly used to share pornography and are “quite popular among those with a sexual interest in children”.
Before magistrates in March, Nelson admitted five breaches of the order between December 2024 and March this year, and distributing an indecent image of a young girl.
The court heard that the officers were not posing as underage girls, but that Nelson had engaged in discussions of child abuse with them.
One of these included discussions of a seven-year-old relative of Nelson’s, who the court heard does not exist.
Speaking in Nelson’s defence, Joanne Eley told the court that Nelson had been “encouraged” by officers to engage in discussion of child abuse, and that an officer had also shared an indecent image of a child.
She added that Nelson suffered from a range of health complications, including a heart murmur and PTSD from his tours in Northern Ireland.
He had no contact with his family since his offending came to light.
Judge David Pugh sentenced Nelson to 18 months in prison for the breaches of the SHPO and six months for distributing the indecent image, to be served concurrently.
Both sentences were reduced by one third in light of Nelson’s guilty pleas.
His reduced sentence was 12 months of which he can expect to serve half.
