A PREVIOUSLY convicted offender has admitted downloading more illegal images of children after being brought back to court.
Benjamin Connor, 44, was sentenced by a judge in 2017 for downloading six indecent photographs while he was a resident at Carlisle’s Carleton Clinic. He was punished for that offence at the city’s crown court, and for having two knives in his possession when he went to the same building to watch hearings in the public gallery.
Connor was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register and comply with the strict terms of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), both for five years.
But on his return to crown court, Connor pleaded guilty to four more crimes which were committed during 2018. He admitted making indecent photographs of children in August that year, three images being classed as category A – the most serious – and 31 class C.
Connor further admitted possessing the 34 illegal images, and breaching the SHPO by using or activating software designed to encrypt data on an internet-accessible device.
Judge Peter Davies heard Connor was the subject of a psychiatric report, a doctor having concluded he was suffering from “manic symptoms” which included him “being sexually disinhibited”.
Judge Davies adjourned the case for the preparation of a probation service report. Connor, previously of Fletcher Close, Cockermouth, and latterly of Irton, near Holmrook, is due to be sentenced on February 28, and was granted conditional bail in the meantime.
