December 2013
Cumbrian child abuse images man sent back to prison
A man who defied a court order by using his mobile phone to access the internet has been returned to prison.
Kevin Holmes, 27, had been released from jail on licence in December 2012 after completing half of a 39-month sentence imposed in 2011 for child abuse images offences.
As part of that sentence – and of an earlier sentence imposed for similar offences in 2005 – he was banned under a Sexual Offences Prevention Order from using any electronic device able to gain access to the internet.
But, Carlisle Crown Court heard, a woman contacted the police when she spotted his page being updated on Facebook.
Although he was using the name Joseph Scott, the woman guessed it was him and confirmed it after asking him for his phone number and using it to have a conversation with him.
When she told him he should be “careful” about going on Facebook because she knew he was banned from using the internet, Holmes told her he did not care.
When he was arrested he admitted to the police that he had been “stupid”, the court was told.
Holmes, who used to live in Hartington Street, Workington, but had recently been homeless and living in the Bowling Green hostel in Carlisle, pleaded guilty to breaching the terms of the Sexual Offences Prevention Order which had first been imposed in 2005 and renewed in 2011.
It was the third time he had been in court for such offences.
In 2005 Holmes admitted downloading abusive pictures of children and six years later pleaded guilty to doing the same thing and breaching the order banning use of the internet.
Defence advocate Alan Lovett told the court Holmes had bought the mobile only to send text messages, but he “succumbed to the temptation” when he realised he could go on Facebook too.
“He accepts that he was ill-judged in his actions,” he said.
Mr Lovett said that although Holmes did not seem to realise it, he had been recalled to prison to complete the sentence which had previously been suspended, so would not be released until July next year.
Judge Peter Hughes QC said the case had “a worrying background”.
The hearing was adjourned to a date yet to be fixed, for further information about Holmes’s position to be obtained.
