Boston sex offender broke rules of Sexual Offenders Prevention Order, court told

Robert James Orton, 50, of Moorhen Close admitted possessing the memory stick and also to failing to tell police that he had it, when he appeared before District Judge Peter Veits sitting at Boston Magistrates Court.

Prosecuting, Jim Clare said Orton was a registered sex offender for an unlimited period following a conviction and prison sentence at Lincoln Crown Court in February 2014 for possessing more than 130,000 images of children and that one of the requirements was not to hold images of children.

Mr Clare said that in June, police had gone to see Orton and had asked him if he had any memory sticks or anything else capable of holding images and he said that he didn't.

However, on September 6, they again saw him and found a memory stick containing images of children, none of which was indecent.

In interview, Orton admitted he had failed to tell the police about the memory stick, which contained images of children he had been asked to send to their parents, who were known to him.

He admitted he 'had twisted the rules slightly'.

Mitigating, Michael Alexander said Orton accepted he had the memory stick as he was going to send the pictures on it to the parents of the children.

“He understands he took a risk but he was put under pressure to do this,” he said.

However, Judge Veits told Orton he was 'no stranger to breaching the order'.

“These were deliberate breaches of the order but I will not send you to prison immediately as the pictures were not indecent,” he told Orton.

He imposed a total of 24 weeks in prison but suspended it for a year and ordered him to pay £200 in costs and charges.