GILLINGHAM PAEDOPHILE JAILED AFTER ACCESSING INDECENT IMAGES OF CHILDREN FROM CHINESE WEBSITE JUST WEEKS AFTER PRISON RELEASE
A paedophile said to pose an "exceptionally high risk" was caught with prohibited child abuse images within weeks of being released from prison.James Bird was living in Gillingham when police received information in May last year that he had flouted court imposed orders designed to manage his behaviour in the community.
Maidstone Crown Court heard that monitoring software he was legally required to have installed on any electronic devices flagged that via an unknown app he had accessed material depicting youngsters being subjected to sexual acts by adults.
As a result, Bird's laptop and tablet were seized and, after analysis, the latter was found to contain 20 banned images.
The 40-year-old later claimed they came to be in his possession out of “carelessness” rather than deliberate means.
But that was rejected at his sentencing hearing on Friday (January 9) when the judge described him as someone who had demonstrated by way of his criminal record a "compulsive, obsessive and determined" sexual interest in children.
Bird first appeared in court in 2014 for multiple offences relating to the making and distributing of abuse images, which led to a community order being imposed, along with a five-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).
However, two years later it was discovered he had breached the terms of that SHPO by contacting children online to commit multiple sexual offences while masquerading as a young, female schoolchild in fake social media accounts.
This led to him being handed a 15-year extended sentence comprising a nine-year jail term with a six-year additional licence period at Preston Crown Court in 2016.
Prosecutor Jeremy Kingsford said that although the images depicted children aged six to 14 being abused by both male and female adults, it was "unclear" whether they were AI, CGI or cartoon creations.
Bird, who was living near Gillingham Park at the time, pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing prohibited images of a child and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
The court also noted his extensive record of 57 offences and the fact he was to be re-released after serving his full extended sentence, with the risk of reoffending still high.
