Paedophile avoids jail after breaching sexual harm prevention order

David Hall (57) was given a ten-year sexual harm prevention order – the maximum allowed – and sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years after a judge heard how he had breached a previous order by viewing child sexual abuse images and those depicting bestiality.

Hall, of Walnut Grove, Mexborough, was told it was his last chance to avoid going to jail by Judge Michael Slater, who warned him: “Any breaches of this order will be brought before me.

“There's simply no way you will escape entering custody should that occur.”

Sheffield Crown Court heard on Monday that Hall was subject to a seven-year SHPO imposed in 2018 for previous offences of accessing indecent images and extreme pornography.

Mr Ben Whittingham said police had received intelligence in September 2021 that illegal material had been accessed from Hall’s address.

When they searched the property, he said, they found a previously wiped laptop with evidence he had accessed seven Category A images – the most extreme class – plus three and seven in Categories B and C and three more depicting bestiality.

Mr Whittingham added: “There was evidence of deliberate searching for this material and bookmarking of this material.”

Police had also found clear signs Hall had used peer-to-peer file-sharing software and searched for child abuse images as recently as the previous month.

Hall made no comment to police but later admitted breaching an SHPO, possessing extreme pornography and indecent images of children.

Mr Richard Adams, mitigating, said Hall’s marriage had broken up following an “absence of intimacy” and his previous rehabilitation course had been cut short by the Covid pandemic.

Following the death of his mother and increased stress at work after taking on a more senior role without any choice, he had effectively “relapsed”, said the barrister.

Hall had been in a relationship for two years with a new partner for whom he acted as a carer and had attempted to prevent further offending by having no laptop and only using a “simple” mobile phone, said Mr Adams.

He added: “He has made a particular effort to avert the circumstances within which temptation tends to occur.

“This is a man, at his core a good upstanding citizen, who has, through emotional pressure, sadly committed a repeat offence.”

The judge told Hall he would be sentenced to the “maximum the law permits me to impose” without him immediately going to jail.

He noted the defendant had not had the chance to complete an accredited rehabilitation course before, with the Covid pandemic putting paid to group therapy sessions, and said he would be given that opportunity, ordering him to complete up to 40 sessions of a programme recommended by probation officers as well as up to 35 rehabilitation activity days.

“I'm giving you an opportunity,” said the judge. “Should you not take it, you know what the consequences will be.”