Lowestoft chef downloaded indecent images of children...again


A Suffolk chef who was convicted by a jury of downloading indecent images of children last year downloaded a further 700 images during the police investigation, a court has heard.

Paul Dunn was originally arrested by police in March 2016 and 300 indecent images of children were found on his computers and a mobile telephone, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

In March last year Dunn, 34, of Spashett Road, Lowestoft, was found guilty of three offences of making indecent images of children and possessing 96 prohibited images of children after denying the charges.

He was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years, 150 hours unpaid work, a rehabilitation requirement and ordered to attend a sex offenders’ treatment programme.

On Thursday (March 21) the court heard that in November 2017 police became aware of suspicious email activity by Dunn and arrested him again.

They seized a mobile phone from him which was found to contain 700 indecent images of children, including 263 in the most serious level A category, 272 at level B and 166 in the lowest level C category.

During police interviews Dunn admitted buying the phone in August 2017 during the police investigation into the earlier images found in his possession.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children in 2017.

Sentencing Dunn on Thursday Judge Rupert Overbury said that if the two cases had been heard together he might not have got away with a suspended sentence after his trial in March last year as his purchase of the second mobile phone might have been seen as an aggravating feature.

However, he said Dunn had made real progress during the suspended sentence order and it made sense to continue his rehabilitation rather than to interrupt it.

Judge Overbury sentenced him to a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years with a 20 day rehabilitation requirement.

He also made a sexual harm prevention order and ordered Dunn to sign the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

When Dunn was sentenced following his conviction last year the court heard that he had admitted being responsible for downloading the 300 images and that he had tried to “pull the wool over the jury’s eyes”.