James Conquest 33

Description

A Derbyshire dad who was found to have thousands indecent images and videos on his laptop sobbed in court as he was labelled a "hardened paedophile" by a judge. James Conquest's home in Lumsdale Crescent, Matlock, was searched three times by police and despite being on bail during the latter two searches, police found more images every time, including some involving children as young as three.

The restaurant supervisor lied to police by saying that he had been sent the images at random and deleted them immediately as he did not have a sexual interest in children. When he was found to have sent images to another paedophile, 33-year-old Conquest told police that he was trying to "educate" the other offender and that he was on the dark web to try and help people.

But this story was dismissed as "nonsense" by a judge as the father-of-one appeared at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, February 13 to be sentenced for 12 separate offences committed over the past three years. Alongside the thousands of indecent images of children, he was also found to have extreme pornographic images involving humans and animals on his phone and laptop.

Sentencing Conquest, Recorder Jason MacAdam said: "You are a hardened paedophile who will blame everybody but yourself for offending of this type. I conclude that passing my public duty in sentencing you means only an immediate custodial sentence can be passed. There can be no question that that is appropriate for this sort of persistent and maintained serial offending.

"You claimed to go on to sites to educate people. I dismiss this as nonsense. You are a paedophile. You get pleasure from looking at images and films of various children. You are very obviously sexually attracted to children.

"Your mitigation matters little in light of the evil you have done in your life, by accessing this sort of disgusting, vile material and so encouraging the industry of sexual abuse of children for profit. I have to accept that your offending thus far is for non-contact offences.

"I very much fear that there is a danger that you would go on and commit contact offences. That is the natural progression for somebody like you and you shake your head, but with somebody like you, who can't stop committing non-contact offences, it would be perfectly proper for me to say that I can't predict whether the intervention of the probation service in prison will work to stop you committing further or more serious offences."

Anthony Cheung, prosecuting, told the court that police searched Conquest's home on December 12, 2019, and seized a Samsung phone. The device was found to have a 848 category A images, the most serious category, 869 category B images and 4,107 category C images, including over 200 videos across the three categories and alongside 12 prohibited and 42 extreme images.

When police searched his home again on September 27, 2021 - while Conquest was on bail - police found another 524 images on a laptop and discovered that he had distributed 36 of the sick images to other paedophiles. While awaiting sentencing for nine counts related to the two searches, officers then looked at his phone on March 3 of this year and found another 29 indecent images, which he said he had as he knew police would look and he wanted to, according to the judge, "speed the process up".

Benn Robinson, mitigating, did not contest the facts of the case but said that his client was of previous positive good character and was responsible for looking after his elderly mother at home, who has terminal cancer. He said that the isolation caused by this, as well as no longer being able to see his young son, created a "perfect storm" for his offending.

He said: "His mother has suffered with various health difficulties for a great number of years and in more recent times this has escalated. When contact with his son stopped, at around the same time his own father left his mother.

"Mr Conquest then went to live with his mother who has various health difficulties, so he shouldered all the financial responsibility. In his spare time he had to physically support her by putting food on the table, collecting medications and such.

"It is perhaps not difficult to see how isolating that sort of existence can be. Less than 12 months later we know he has been downloading this sort of images. The elephant in the room is that it persisted after he was arrested.

"They are not contact offences. He directly has not caused the children in these images any serious harm. There is no suggestion he was trying to contact children himself."

Mr Robinson's pleas for a suspended sentence were rejected by the judge, who sentenced Conquest to concurrent 45-month sentences for counts of making indecent category A images of children, distributing indecent category A images and possessing extreme pornographic images.

He was given concurrent 12-month sentences for a second count of making indecent category A images, two counts of both making indecent category B and making category C images, and single counts possessing prohibited images of children, distributing category B and distributing category C images.

He was given a 24-month sentence, also concurrent, for a third count of making indecent category A images of children. Conquest will be on the Sex Offenders Register and the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely and his devices will be destroyed. He will serve half of his 45-month total prison sentence in custody, with any time spent on remand to be taken off. He must also pay a 170 victim surcharge.