I need help, says Kettering village paedophile who's attracted to children

A Kettering village paedophile who was caught with vile child abuse pictures for a second time admitted he needed help as he was jailed.

Joshua Neves, 23, said he was sexually attracted to youngsters after being arrested when police carried out a check on him in Broughton last year.

He was given a suspended sentence in 2020 over indecent images offences - and now he is behind bars after more than 500 more were found on his phone in September.

Sentencing him to 16 months in prison, Recorder James House QC told him: "You know full well what behaviour is illegal and the dangers that it causes to those who have been depicted."

Yesterday (Friday) Northampton Crown Court heard Neves had been given a sexual harm prevention order when he was last before the courts, restricting his use of the internet and banning him from deleting browsing history.

Police visited his home in Dawkins Court on September 22 last year as part of routine monitoring and checked his Samsung phone.

Prosecuting, Thomas Welshman said: "He had deleted a block of internet history from September 9 to September 16."

The phone was examined and found to contain more sick images including a total of 171 category A files, the most depraved, of which 146 were videos.

Files also included 298 in category B (87 videos) and 68 in category C (30 videos).

Mr Welshman said Neves, who wore grey prison issue clothes as he appeared over videolink from HMP Peterborough, admitted visiting various apps to find them before deleting his history.

He said: "He said he knew these things were wrong but he is sexually attracted to children and needs help, in his words."

Neves admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one of breaching a sexual harm prevention order when he appeared at Northampton Magistrates' Court.

In 2020 he had been given a 41-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, with rehabilitation activities.

But yesterday the court heard a probation worker had concluded he was now 'unmanageable' in the community.

Mitigating, Sebastian Walker said Neves had suffered mental health difficulties at the time and was isolated.

During mitigation the court heard he has ADHD and autistic traits, was depressed for a long time and has borderline personality disorder.

Mr Walker said: "This is a man who needs help."

Summing up, Recorder House QC said that Neves had also been following young boys on Instagram.

He said: "You have continued to demonstrate very worrying thought processes and behaviour."

Neves was jailed for 16 months - 10 months for last year's offences as well as six months of his partly-activated suspended sentence - a total which Recorder House QC said he hoped would act as a deterrent to him in the future.

Neves will serve up to half in custody before being released on licence. The sexual harm prevention order will remain in place when he is released.