Paedophile finally locked up after evading jail for previous offending

Judge tells psycho-sexual therapist: “You got it wrong last time, didn’t you?”

A NEWBURY paedophile with a “chronic” addiction to child porn has finally been jailed.

It was not the first time that 66-year-old David Moore had been caught with images depicting the worst kind of child sexual abuse, Reading Crown Court heard.

In 2013, he was given a suspended prison sentence for similar offences to the ones he faced on Thursday, after his therapist convinced a judge he was probably not sexually aroused by children, despite his having more than 2,000 child porn images.

At this most recent hearing, a probation officer and the same psycho-sexual therapist pleaded with Judge Simon Oliver to once again spare Moore, who lives at Mandarin Drive, from an immediate custodial sentence.

His defence counsel also provided character references from his “wife, children, sisters and neighbours”.

This time, Moore admitted making hundreds of indecent images of a child of Category A – the most extreme – plus hundreds more in Categories B and C.

He further admitted possessing prohibited images of a child; possessing extreme pornographic images and publishing an obscene article, namely an online messager chat using the name ArmyDad757MM.

All the offences were committed between January 15, 2015, and June 29 last year.

James Batten, prosecuting, said aggravating features included “the age and vulnerability of the children” and their obvious “pain and distress”.

Nadia Chbat, for Moore, said it had come as a “real shock” to his family that Moore had “found himself again in this unfortunate position”.

Psycho-sexual therapist Victoria Appleyard suggested Moore would benefit from a new course aimed at treating sex offenders.

She suggested he needed help, not punishment in prison.

Judge Oliver noted: “His behaviour is described as ‘chronic’ and over a long period of time.

“He’s had therapeutic input.

“Someone has placed their trust in him and he failed it.

“Literally, you’ve been there and done it.

“You got it wrong last time, didn’t you?”

Ms Appleyard conceded: “It didn’t work.”

Judge Oliver continued: “What guarantees have I got this [new course] will be any better? He was given the benefit of the doubt last time.”

He also remarked that Moore had become more “calculated, wily and cunning” in his offending and had learned from past mistakes in trying to make the images inaccessible to police.

Judge Oliver told Moore: “In 2013 you stood in this building charged with the same offences and you were sentenced to a suspended term of imprisonment.

“I ask myself; what was the point of all the therapeutic work – what did it achieve?

“Answer; absolutely nothing. I’m told this new course will work but they got it wrong before.

“That was their failure and it could fail again.

“It seems to me you’ve had your chance and not taken it.”

Judge Oliver remarked on the extreme nature of the child abuse images and told Moore he would be sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, half of which will be served in jail, the rest on licence in the community.

In addition, Moore was made subject to a decade-long Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Finally, he was ordered to pay a statutory victim services surcharge of £140.