Paedophile jailed again after downloading child images (From The Oxford Times)

Paedophile jailed again after downloading child images

10:00am Tuesday 15th May 2012 in Banbury

A CONVICTED paedophile began downloading hundreds of images of child abuse just months after being released from prison.

Darren Hawkins was found with hundreds of photos that had been accessed in the same year he was released from a 21-month jail term.

The 42-year-old was jailed in 2008 for 26 offences of viewing and sharing indecent images of children and was released in January 2009.

However, when police raided his home in December 2010 they found three laptops containing 380 illegal images which had been downloaded between that point and September 2009.

Hawkins, of Broome Way, Banbury, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday having earlier admitted five counts of making indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Sandra Beck said 64 of the images were rated at level four and two were at level five, the most serious category.

Claire Fraser, defending, said her client described his problem “as an addiction” carried out when surfing the internet after drinking.

She said: “When he’s had alcohol he finds it very hard to stop. In his mind he views it as an addiction.”

Miss Fraser said Hawkins’s “support network” stopped at the end of his licence period after his release from prison.

Judge Patrick Eccles said some of the images were “disgraceful and perverted” and jailed Hawkins for 20 months.