SIMON HALL, BLACKBURN PAEDOPHILE, HID DEVICES WITH INDECENT IMAGES FROM POLICE

SIMON HALL, BLACKBURN PAEDOPHILE, HID DEVICES WITH INDECENT IMAGES FROM POLICE

In May 2021, a paedophile from Blackburn named Simon David Hall attempted to hide electronic devices containing indecent images of children from law enforcement.

Police later discovered that Hall, of Ennerdale Avenue, had stored and deleted material on his hard drives, USB sticks, and mobile phones.

Hall had previously been convicted in 2018 of possessing indecent images of children and was subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

The order mandates that the 60-year-old must provide police with any storage devices or internet-capable equipment.

On May 10 at Preston Crown Court, Hall pleaded guilty to breaching the SHPO by failing to produce certain devices for inspection and by deleting digital content.

The court heard that on September 8, Hall did not present a USB stick, a Hitachi hard drive, a Toshiba disk drive, a Seagate hard drive, a Fujitsu hard drive, a Bush tablet, an Archos device, and two mobile phones to police officers for inspection.

Additionally, on the same day, Hall deleted the content or browsing history from these digital storage media.

When police examined his devices, they found he had created a total of 62 indecent images of children between May 16 and September 9 of the previous year.

Of these images, 49 were classified as Category A—the most severe, along with 11 Category B images, and two Category C images.

Currently in custody and shielding due to suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Hall also possessed 12 prohibited images of children and admitted guilt to all charges.

The judge, Beverley Lunt, ordered a psychiatric report and adjourned sentencing.

Hall is scheduled to be sentenced at Preston Crown Court on June 25.