Locations
Grimston Road, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG7
Description
An online sex offender has been jailed after downloading and sharing hundreds of ‘horrific’ child sexual abuse images.
Paul Smith, aged 41, came to the attention of Nottinghamshire Police when his IP address was linked to illicit images and videos stored on an online file sharing site.
When he was arrested in February 2022, Smith admitted to using the site to access images of adults, but also made voluntary reference to ‘child porn’ – saying that he made a point of instantly deleting any such images.
Officers then began a more detailed search of his then home address in Grimston Road, Radford, and seized electronic devices.
Forensic examination of his mobile phone confirmed his use of the file sharing site and uncovered multiple prohibited images.
It also contained a damning history from use of an online chat application in which he shared and viewed hundreds of links to images and videos featuring children and babies.
Most of the images were graded as Category A – depicting the most serious sexual abuse of children by adults.
Smith, of Radford, initially denied any wrongdoing but later pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing indecent images of children and three counts of making indecent photographs of children.
He also admitted to possessing a prohibited image of a child, and possessing an extreme pornographic image of an animal.
Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday (29 July) he was given a seven year extended prison sentence and added to the sex offenders’ register for life.
He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order that will tightly restrict his access to children and the internet once he is released.