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A paedophile with an “appalling” record of sex offences involving children tried to destroy evidence when police turned up at his home, Lincoln Crown Court was told on Thursday.
Ian Picksley, who at the time was on prison licence after being released from an indeterminate sentence, was visited by officers in December 2019 at his flat in Hawthorn Chase, Lincoln, but initially refused to answer the door.
Tony Stanford, prosecuting, said that officers knocked on the front and back doors and then on the window but it was several minutes before Picksley allowed them in.
Once inside they discovered he had been running a shredding programme on his tablet device with the intention of removing the history of what he had been looking at.
Picksley was arrested and police took away the tablet, a mobile phone and a laptop. When the items were checked a total of 2,045 indecent images of children were found on the devices along with extreme pornographic images and prohibited images of children.
The court heard that Picksley had convictions for 27 previous sexual offences starting back in 1992.
His most recent offending led him to receive an indeterminate sentence at Sheffield Crown Court in 2007 for offences against a girl under the age of 13. He served nine years before being released in 2016.
Mr Stanford said: “This is someone who clearly has a sexual interest in children. He has an appalling criminal record for sexual offences.”
Picksley, 62, of Hawthorn Chase, Lincoln, admitted three offences of making an indecent image of a child. He also admitted possession of prohibited images of a child and possession of extreme pornography.
He was jailed for 20 months and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. He was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
His computer devices were ordered to be forfeited and destroyed.
Recorder Charles Falk, passing sentence, told him: “You have a horrific record of sexual offending.”
Sunil Khanna, in mitigation, said that immediately following his arrest Picksley was recalled to prison to continue serving his indeterminate sentence and his eventual release date will be decided by the Parole Board.
Mr Khanna said that Picksley was initially released from his indeterminate sentence in 2016 and came to Lincoln to live with his elderly mother.
She was diagnosed with cancer and he cared for her until she passed away.
“It led to him becoming extremely isolated and depressed. That led to him going online and looking at indecent images of children.
“When he was arrested in December 2019 he was immediately recalled to prison. He has already spent over a year in custody as a consequence of this.”
Picksley himself told the court that he is seeking medical help for his issues. He said “This has been a long-standing problem that I have and don’t like. It’s devastating what I’ve done to people.”
