A PERVERT with an interest in young boys shared appalling images of child abuse with other paedophiles.

Simon Allen, who has previous convictions for image offences both in the UK and Holland, downloaded 250 indecent images - including videos - and distributed some on line to four other people.

53-year-old Allen had also downloaded extreme pornography involving animals and he has now been jailed for a total of three and a half years.

Sentencing him at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Katherine Pierpoint, said that downloading and sharing such images “fuels the abuse of children.”

She pointed out that Allen knew “from personal experience how damaging the effect of sexual abuse can be and how it has a life-long effect on victims.”

The court heard that the defendant was jailed in 2015 for indecent image offences and ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders Register (SOR) for ten years.

Conditions of the Register included notifying police about travel plans seven days in advance but in October last year he spent three days in Holland with two friends without telling the police.

Allen, of Cearns Road, Oxton, Wirral, pleaded guilty to nine offences involving breaching the terms of the SOR, distributing and downloading indecent images and possessing extreme porn and prohibited images.

Judge Pierpoint said that when police went to the home of Allen’s dad on November 15 last year to arrest him, “you were not overly co-operative and clearly did not want them to take your Samsung phone.”

After they did he was taken to a police station but when interviewed made no comment.

When that phone and also an iPhone were forensically examined police found 112 images in the most serious category; 53 in category B and 86 in category C.

Judge Pierpoint said that when interviewed by the probation service Allen had “accepted he had sexual interest in young children.”

He had been a drug user since the age of 15 and is a long term chronic user of Class A drugs.

“The probation service is concerned about the risk you pose to the public and further offending. These offences are so serious only an immediate sentence can be justified,” she told him.

Shannon Stewart, prosecuting, said that some of the photos and videos recovered involved boys as young as three. The extreme porn images showed sexual activity with horses and dogs.

“Examination of the devices showed he had distributed a total of 57 images, including videos, to four people via the Telegram application.”

Ms Stewart said that they were all three categories of seriousness including 29 in Category A.

Allen has 20 previous convictions for 44 offences including possessing extreme pornography in Rotterdam and drugs offences.

John Weate, defending, said that Allen who suffers from autism, ADHD and post traumatic stress disorder, had spent his younger years in Holland where his dad had run a business.

He said Allen was such a heavy Class A drugs user, “I was taken back by the volumes of drugs consumed by him in recent times.”

Allen had had a good relationship with his parents but had suffered a childhood trauma and such events can be a trigger for alcohol and substance misuse in later years, said Mr Weate.

He added that Allen “clearly has some intelligence” and the recent death of a friend from drugs had impacted on him. 

The judge ordered Allen to sign on the Sexual Offenders Register for life and imposed a ten year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.