Child porn pervert “looked after” little boy at South Yorkshire hospital

The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children raised the alarm on September 26, 2018, when a naked image of an eight-year-old girl was uploaded to Facebook under an alias.

The IP address was traced to Paul Jenkins' home and he was arrested the next day, prosecutor Robert Stevenson told Sheffield Crown Court, on Wednesday.

Officers found "child-orientated paraphernalia" in his home, including colouring books, felt-tip pens, soft toys and snacks.

Analysis of his computer, and a memory card that was found on him at the police station, revealed Jenkins had downloaded 169 indecent pictures of children and 85 prohibited images of children, between May 2017, and February 2018.

The images of children, aged between five and 13, were obtained using search terms for "young children in nappies," "pre-teen" and "toddler girls".

He told police that an "unknown friend had accessed his computer" when he was first interviewed in February.

And over a year later, in April 2019, after his computers had been analysed, Jenkins claimed he found the memory card in the street but never looked at it, and that some of the computer devices belonged to his daughter.

The court heard a Sexual Offences Prevention Order, which forbids him from having contact with children under 16, was imposed in September 2014, after he was convicted of possessing indecent pictures of children for the first time.

Jenkins breached that order when he offered to accompany a woman he knew from Facebook to hospital in Barnsley, with her one-year-old son, on October 15, last year.

Mr Stevenson said that Jenkins spent time with the boy, took him to the play area and looked after him on his own, when the boy's mother went for a cigarette.

He later told police he thought the order, which lasts until further notice, had run out.

Jenkins has 35 previous convictions, mainly for burglary and theft in the 80s and 90s, and the indecent assault of a 13-year-old girl, in 1994.

Holly Clegg, mitigating, said: "He says "I was a fool. I knew I shouldn't have done it. I have only got myself to blame."”

She said his relationship with his son had broken down and "his mind wasn't as focussed as it is now."

"He wants to get to a better understanding of his thought processes and how he can cope with that," she said, arguing that rehabilitation, rather than prison, was required.

Jenkins, 54, of Cantilupe Crescent, Aston, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent and prohibited images of children and breaching a Sex Offenders' Prevention Order, last year.

Judge Peter Kelson QC told him: "One shudders at the thought that you manipulated yourself into the position where you had sole care of the child.

"The order was made indefinitely. It's there to protect children. It was a deliberate offence."

He jailed Jenkins for 18 months.