Locations
Silver Road, Street, Somerset, BA16
Description
A paedophile who downloaded an app to hide his internet search history has been jailed. Basil Al-Mudalal, 68, was caught out by police when they made a surprise visit to his home.
Al-Mudalal is a convicted sex offender who was banned from owning any device which did not retain information about what he had been looking at online. But when police analysed his devices they found pictures and films of children being sexually abused.
The defendant, of Silver Road, Street, was sent back to jail for his latest offences. Taunton Crown Court was told he still poses a risk of reoffending, despite previously completing a sex offender programme.
He admitted three offences of possessing indecent images of children and breaching the terms of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Al-Mudalal was jailed for 26 months.
Prosecutor Mr Paul Grumbar said police went to his house on February 22, 2022. Al-Mulalal gave police his phone. On it was an app called 'DuckDuckGo' which does not retain search history. No images were found on the device but downloading the app put him in breach of his SHPO.
Police then found a hard drive connected to his TV in his bedroom. Officers found multiple indecent images and movies but stopped counting at 1,000. They included material in the most serious category and the abuse of children as young as four.
The defendant has previous convictions for possessing indecent images and has served stints in prison. He was given the SHPO in 2017.
Mr Harry Ahuja, defending, said he was ashamed of his behaviour and wanted the chance to do the Horizon sex offender programme - even though he had previously completed the course in 2017.
He said Al-Mudalal had been in the UK for 50 years and had an income through rented property. He was worried that if he went to jail he would not be able to send his sister in Jordan 450 a month.
A report by probation assessed him as a high risk of reoffending and not manageable in the community.
Judge James Townsend said: "You've been convicted yet again of possessing images of serious child abuse. Quite clearly they were viewed by you until recently. It was a very large number of images involving significant number of victims.
"You have previously offended in precisely this way and continue to offend. Probation services have little confidence that future intervention is likely to stop you offending. You have attended the Horizon programme but further work is unlikely to achieve much."
Al-Mudalal will serve half of his sentence in prison and rest on licence. He will remain subject to the SHPO and sex offender register for 10 years.