A ‘LONER’ from Basingstoke who admitted to breaching his sexual harm prevention order by downloading thousands of indecent images of children has had his sentencing postponed after a judge requested a report on his ‘dangerousness’.

Ross McNaughton, of Kings Road, South Ham, pleaded guilty on March 29 at Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court of three counts of possessing indecent images, as well as of breaching a sexual harm prevention order put in place in 2016.

Winchester Crown Court heard today (May 11) how the 53-year-old was visited by police on December 4 2021 at 7.15am after his IP address was flagged.

William Saunders, prosecuting, told the court that police seized computer equipment including a black Windows tablet which contained 608 Class A indecent still images and movies, as well as nearly 1,000 of Class B and 21,000 of Class C.

Mr Saunders continued: “All of these, obviously, were indecent images of the worst form and not only was he in possession of them, he was in deliberate breach of the sexual harm prevention order.”

Mr Saunders added that McNaughton admitted all of the offences in interview, but “downplayed the quantity” which would be found on the device.

“It was possession only of these images, with no suggestion of distribution or attempted contact with the children,” he said.

Mr Saunders told the court that McNaughton had several previous convictions for the same type of offence, dating from 1996. This included two prison sentences, with his most recent release being in 2018.

In mitigation, Adrienne Knight, defending, described her client as a “complete loner” and an “addict” who was “one of the worst victims of Covid.”

She said: “Although we all know that these offences are horrendous, they do not actually harm children and the defendant has never ever done anything other than look. He has never attempted to hurt a child or done anything that involves that.

“If he could flick a switch and never have found out how easy it is, he would. He is effectively an addict, no different to heroin or cigarettes. It’s the harm that it causes that makes it different.”

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Ms Knight continued: “After his release in 2018 he tried so hard to remain out of trouble and did comply until he had a knock.

“He was one of the worst victims of Covid. He has no job or friends, and lives in a really unpleasant flat which is not his own.

“He was locked up, seeing no one with nowhere to go when he had problems. He wasn’t able to go to the library where he could use the internet under controlled conditions, and get out and speak to people. He didn’t buy the tablet to look at the images, he bought it because he was lonely and bored. It’s like an alcoholic sitting in a flat alone staring at a whiskey bottle.”

Ms Knight said McNaughton has depression and a low IQ, and “is so vulnerable”, adding: “He has straight away said sorry, and he is really sorry, but he just could not help himself.”

However, Recorder Gordon Bebb QC, raised concerns that the pre-sentence report prepared did not address the defendant’s “dangerousness”, which would allow a judge to impose an extended sentence.

He therefore adjourned the case to the same court on May 31, for an addendum to be prepared.

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