Paedophile pensioner from Leeds caught with software-wiping app on illegal phone

As part of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) imposed to monitor him internet use, James Smith was found to be in possession of a Samsung smartphone that he failed to register with police.

Officers visited his the 75-year-old’s home on Avery View, Armley, in September of last year where he handed over the device. Worryingly, they also found apps that he had downloaded and deleted several times, including a search history-wiping app.

He confessed to the police during his interview, but claimed he had downloaded them by accident, Leeds Crown Court heard. He said he had taken it to a mobile phone shop to have the apps deleted. He later admitted a charge of breaching of his SHPO.

No mitigation was offered by his barrister, Alan Armbrister, after Judge Christopher Batty said he would not be sending him back to prison.

He told Smith: “At your age you need to know that if you do not comply with orders, you tie the court’s hands and they have to send you to prison. The purpose behind this order is so you can be managed in the community so that any risk can be managed.

"I accept there’s no evidence that you used it for anything untoward – it might be because you got rid of the evidence, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt."

He gave him an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for 24 months, with 10 rehabilitation days.

Smith has sexual offences dating back to 1973 involving sexual activity with a child. He was then jailed in 2018 after trying to meet a child after grooming them online.

The profile turned out to be a decoy set up by an online paedophile hunter group. He turned up at a football ground in Chatham, Kent, where he was greeted by the group and subsequently arrested.

He denied a grooming charge but was convicted by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court in just 10 minutes. He received a two-and-a-half-year sentence and given the SHPO.