Convicted paedophile continued to search out sick images, Leeds Crown court told

Jonathan Fawcett was jailed in 2014 for multiple charges and was given a sexual prevention order for 10 years, stipulating he must not delete his internet history and must provide all net-savvy advices to police on request.

Officers went to his home on Church Drive in South Kirkby, Pontefract, on August 18 this year to conduct a review and he was asked to hand over his devices.

He gave them a Samsung phone, tablet and a computer tower, prosecutor Jessica Lister told Leeds Crown Court. The 28-year-old dad was twice asked if he had any further devices, but said “no”.

During a cursory glance the officers were able to see that extensive searches had been made on one device for “incest” and “young teenage porn”.

Fawcett told them he had no idea about the searches, and said he may have done it when drunk.

Officers also found that his internet history on his phone had been deleted prior to May 2022.

He was then arrested and admitted there were other internet devices in the house, including another computer tower, a Playstation, an Amazon Firestick and another Samsung phone.

He made no comments during his police interview. He later admitted breaching his prevention order.

Mitigating, Sarah Cunnane said that it was his first breach after eight years, and he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

She said the death of his former partner had an “emotional impact” on him and that he suffers from mental health issues and problems with alcohol misuse.

The judge, Recorder Andrew Haslam KC told Fawcett: “The order was well known to you. There was a large number of searches.

"It’s a very serious breach of the order, you deliberately hid those devices from the police. You were asked on two separate occasions and failed to tell them.”

He handed him 12 months’ jail.

The court had earlier heard that Fawcett was given 20 months’ jail in 2014 for eight offences, including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and sexual activity with a child.