Sunderland sex offender’s vile haul included image of three-month-old baby
A sex offender has been put behind bars after being caught with child abuse images featuring victims as young as three months old.
Paul Monks had a sickening collection of 582 pictures and movies stored on a Samsung tablet and an SD card that he had tried to hide from the police.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that in 2021, Monks was issued with a sexual harm prevention order and given a suspended sentence at Bristol Crown Court after being caught with similar vile material.
When police visited his home in Sunderland in April last year he was asked to hand over all of his electronic devices and gave officers his Samsung phone, Samsung tablet and two hard drives.
But during a search, police found an SD card that he had kept back.
When the equipment was examined, child abuse images were found on the tablet and SD card.
The court heard the images featured very young children and prosecutor Neil Jones said one “appeared to be around three months old”.
A total of 387 of the images found were Category A, which is the most serious, 144 were Category B and 51 were Category C.
Monks, 50, of Chester Road, Sunderland, admitted breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and three offences of possessing indecent images of children.
Judge Tim Gittins sentenced him to 18 months behind bars.
In handing down sentence, he said: “When each and every image is opened and viewed by you, it is a fresh abuse of that child.”
He told the court there was a “glimmer of hope” that Monks could be rehabilitated, but added: “These offences in combination are simply too serious to merit anything other than an immediate custodial sentence.”
Jordan Parkinson, defending, said Monks started using crystal meth after his relationship broke down and he had been on a three-day binge in the lead-up to the offences.
She added that Monks had no family or friends in the area and “resorted back to accessing indecent images of children as a means of coping with low mood”.