February 2018

Paedophile pensioner jailed after downloading images of child abuse

A paedophile pensioner who has convictions for sex offences dating back to the 70s has been sentenced to 16 months in jail after downloading images of child abuse.

66-year-old Geoffrey Gamble, who had been living at a bail hostel in Taunton Road, Bridgwater, had been released on license from prison.

He had been made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order, which meant he was not allowed to use any device he could use to connect to the internet.

Prosecuting, Rachel Drake said he had told people living in the hotel that he was going to go out and buy a mobile phone, and told them about the sites he could use to download and view the images.

“And on 11 May last year, he went out, bought a phone and didn’t notify the police that he had done so,” she said.

“When the phone was found, there was one category A image, three category B images and 82 category C images found. The search history also showed that he had made a number of searches for illegal images.”

She told the court he had previous convictions for a number of indecent assaults on teenagers.

Sentencing him, Judge Erik Salomonsen said: “You are a 66-year-old sex offender. You started offending in 1970 and you have carried on. It is abundantly clear you’ve had an unhealthy interest in children all this time.

“You were released to a bail hostel and foolishly said you were going to get a phone and use it to look at illegal images. You then bought a phone and did just that.”

He sentenced him to 16 months in prison for the category 1 images, with no separate penalty for the category B and C images.

He was also made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will remain on the Sex Offender’s Register indefinitely.