Anthony Press 42

Description

A seedy sex offender started searching for sickening images of child pornography just a month after being spared prison for having "very lewd" sexualised online chats with a decoy 12-year-old girl. Devious and sneaky Anthony Press tried desperately to cover up what he was doing by deleting his internet search history but he was caught out when police made checks on his activities and discovered what he was secretly doing.

It was a "deliberate" breach of the "golden opportunity" that he had been given to turn over a new leaf and change his ways, Hull Crown Court heard. Press, 40, of Wentworth Way, Hull, admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order and failing to register his details as a sex offender.

Stephen Welch, prosecuting, said that in March 2019, Press was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence at Hull Crown Court for attempting to communicate sexually with a child. He repeatedly contacted a fake 12-year-old girl, who told him her supposed age, and he used "very lewd language" to her in their messages.

Within a month of being given the suspended sentence, Press was searching on the internet for indecent images of children. A detective asked to look at his phone as part of monitoring on April 2, 2019 but there was no search history on it and Press claimed that he had to reset it and lost the internet history.

This was in breach of a court order which banned him from deleting his internet history. He had searched for "teen brunette f****d" in the early hours of that morning but claimed that it was "just out of boredom".

On January 31, 2020, the detective went to the home of Press, who was very nervous throughout the visit. There were no indecent images of children on his computer equipment but search records suggested that he had been seeking such images. Settings put in place erased data after the internet was exited.

"This was a very serious breach," said Mr Welch. "The defendant accepts that it was done deliberately to avoid detection on downloading indecent images of children. All of that which he was seeking for was going to be illegal."

Press should have gone to the police to update and confirm his details on September 13, 2020 but he did not do so until September 23 - 10 days late. Hannah Turner, mitigating, said that, apart from these incidents, Press had fully complied with the terms of the suspended sentence and had increased insight into his behaviour and the impact that it had on others.

"It's obviously a deliberate breach," said Miss Turner. "We don't know what actual material was accessed. We have just the search terms.

"There is no hiding from the fact that this offence occurred within a month of that suspended sentence being imposed. He feels embarrassed and ashamed in respect of what he has done."

Press had medical difficulties and walked with the assistance of a walking stick. Judge John Thackray QC told Press: "The court gave you a golden opportunity to rehabilitate yourself. Within a month of receiving that golden opportunity, you were committing these serious offences.

"You were doing your best to find indecent images of children and to hide the fact that you were looking for indecent images of children. Indecent images of children and those who attempt to obtain them fuel child sexual abuse and untold suffering and harm to the children who are abused, photographed and videoed, at or from a young age, often with adverse consequences for them.

"I am not satisfied that your risk can be managed in the community or that you can be rehabilitated in the community."

Press was jailed for one year. The sentence included a consecutive four months after part of the original suspended sentence was activated.