ROBERT ORTON, BOSTON SEX OFFENDER, VIOLATES PREVENTION ORDER AND IS SENTENCED

In November 2018, Robert James Orton, a 50-year-old sex offender from Moorhen Close, Boston, was handed a suspended prison sentence after breaching the terms of his Sexual Offenders’ Prevention Order (SOPO). Orton admitted to possessing a memory stick containing images of children and failing to notify police about it when questioned. During the hearing at Boston Magistrates Court before District Judge Peter Veits, prosecutor Jim Clare explained that Orton was a registered sex offender for an indefinite period following his 2014 conviction at Lincoln Crown Court for possessing over 130,000 images of children, which expressly barred him from holding such images.

Mr. Clare recounted that in June, police visited Orton and asked if he possessed any memory sticks or devices capable of storing images; he initially denied having any. However, on September 6, officers found a memory stick on him that contained images of children, though none were indecent. Orton admitted in police interview that he had not disclosed the memory stick, which held images of children he had been asked to send to their parents, who were known to him.

Judge Veits remarked, “You are no stranger to breaching the order.” He acknowledged that although the breaches were deliberate, he would not impose immediate imprisonment because the images were not indecent. Instead, the court sentenced Orton to 24 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and ordered him to pay £200 in costs and charges.

This incident followed a March 2014 case where Orton, then 45, was convicted of downloading more than 100,000 indecent images of children. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment after police discovered the extensive collection on his devices during a raid at his one-bedroom flat in Lincoln. Officers found multiple devices, including a concealed second mobile phone and a computer hard drive and laptop hidden behind his bed. Prosecutor James Varley stated, “There was a huge quantity of images on the laptop and the hard drive.”

In November 2014, Orton was re-arrested after being spotted at Boston Library viewing images of young boys on a computer. A concerned member of the public alerted police, who found Orton transferring illegal images onto a PlayStation Portable device. The investigation uncovered a total of 131,366 indecent images of children on his devices, predominantly in the least serious category, but nearly 500 images fell into the two most serious levels. Additionally, he possessed 6,718 prohibited images.

Orton, of Middlecott Close, Boston, pleaded guilty to 12 charges of making and possessing indecent images of children and two charges of breaching a sexual offences prevention order. The court learned that he had previous convictions, including a four-year sentence in 1996 for sex offenses against young boys and another conviction in March 2011 for possessing indecent images. Judge Sean Morris imposed an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order prohibiting Orton from possessing any photographs of children, emphasizing the need for public protection. He stated, “The public would expect me to lock you up and that is what I’m going to do. It has to be brought home to you that this is against the law.”

Defense lawyer Jack Talbot highlighted Orton’s cooperation since arrest and his guilty pleas, noting, “He is a solitary character. He is not involved in chat rooms or in distributing pictures.”