Court / Jail sentence ‘inevitable’ for repeat child abuse image offender

Content warning: This story contains details of child sexual abuse. If you have been affected by this issue, help is available.

A REPEAT offender downloaded child abuse imagery just a day after leaving jail, Lerwick Sheriff Court has heard.

Henry Hunter admitted downloading 39 category A still images and another 27 category C photos between 16 October 2023 and 26 August 2024.

The 37-year-old was released from prison on 15 October 2023, having been jailed for 19 months in March 2022 for possessing more than 1,000 child abuse images over a 16-year period.

Hunter, whose address was given as Grampian Prison, has been told that another jail sentence for the latest offence was “inevitable”.

The images Hunter downloaded after leaving prison were “strikingly similar” to the ones he had previously been found guilty of possessing, said procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie.

As well as the 66 category A and C images he admitted to downloading, Mackenzie said another 2,226 images were discovered which were “borderline”.

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Hunter had a “perverse predilection with young children being restrained” or tickled, Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday.

A police search of his internet history discovered an “unhealthy interest” in this.

A warrant was executed at Hunter’s address in Lerwick’s Ladies Drive on 26 August last year after police received intelligence that he may have been accessing indecent images again.

Police discovered a tower computer there, which they found contained abusive still images of children – all of which were initially “inaccessible”.

Mackenzie said that though a relatively low number of images were found, he pointed out this had been a “very quick return to offending” by Hunter.

He added this offence was in “an almost identical fashion” to his previous conviction, and said Hunter was “determined to persist in this behaviour”.

The fiscal added people like Hunter only served to fuel the demand for sexual violence to be carried out against children.

Defence agent Tommy Allan disputed that Hunter had accessed child abuse images the day after being released from jail.

He said though the computer system had been in operation since that point, Hunter had initially been “co-operating with officers” and things had been “going well for him”.

However he said the images were accessed at a time when Hunter was “struggling”, and had been stressed by an encounter with a neighbour who was “hostile” to him.

Hunter had also lost all his friends and had been left isolated, Allan said.

“He lost hope and gave way to what is an addiction,” the solicitor added.

“Mr Hunter knows that this is wrong. He wants to do whatever it takes to break the cycle.

“He wants to live some kind of normal life.”

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Allan admitted his client was more than aware that he would most likely be jailed again, calling it “inevitable”, having been remanded in custody since last August.

He added Hunter knew that fuelling the demand for child sexual abuse imagery was “not a victimless crime”.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said the issue for him was whether a sexual harm prevention order was needed, and how long that order would need to last for.

He adjourned Hunter’s sentencing for the preparation of a criminal justice social work report, with Hunter now due to be sentenced on 19 February.

However, he told Hunter in no uncertain terms that he would be remaining in jail, adding: “There will be a custodial sentence in this case.”

He remanded him in custody until his next court appearance. The court also granted a Crown motion for the forfeiture of Hunter’s tower computer.