Serial Northampton paedophile has sentence extended after 30 more indecent images of children found

A serial child predator from Northampton has had his sentence extended after being caught with 30 indecent images of children on his phone and yet another attempt at grooming a child.

Dave Fox, aged 49, of HMP Bure, who is already serving a sentence for offences committed in 2020, was sentenced on Thursday (February 17) at Northampton Crown Court after authorities found 30 indecent images of children, including two videos, on the offender's phone dated back to 2017.

James Bide-Thomas, prosecuting, read that an examination of the defendant's phone, found during a routine check, discovered 11 Category A images, one Category A video, ten Category B images and one video, and seven Category C images.*

The prosecutor also described how Fox had used 'four usernames on the internet' which he had not disclosed to authorities, something he was required to do by a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) the predator had been slapped with in May 2013 for past sexual offences, the court heard.

Mr Bide-Thomas said: "The defendant was also found to have been in contact with an account in October 2017.

"The defendant had sent a picture of a young-looking male stating that he was 17 and requested images of (an underage child), although these were not sexual in nature."

While the police were never able to prove the identity of the apparently under-aged account, the convicted sex offender later 'voluntarily' withdrew from the incident without any further conversations taking place.

Despite this, Her Honour Judge Rebecca Crane, presiding, described the messages, which were sustained over nine days, as a 'deliberate' breach of his SHPO and 'clearly' the beginning of something potentially more sinister.

Judge Crane said: "This is clearly a grooming offence. That is what he is doing with an under-16-year-old. He had no other legitimate reason to contact someone that age and to request images from them.

"I think this is a very serious breach. It included the concealing of his identity and included him claiming to be a much younger male. He requested an image and, while I accept that it was not anything sexual, it was clearly the beginning of grooming behaviour."

This was not Fox's first offence. With a conviction for indecent exposure in 1991, the predator had also served time for previous charges involved underage children.

At time of sentencing, Fox is serving more than eight years in prison for a July 2020 offence where he met with a child following online grooming.

Georgina Blower, defending, said: "He is incredibly remorseful and accepts the gravity of his offences. He knows that he's let people down.

"He tells me that if something difficult happens in his life, and he was going through difficulties at the time, it leads to his offending.

"He is very keen to undertake the appropriate courses to begin his rehabilitation, but these have not been available because of Covid-19."

Fox was sentenced to a further eight months in prison.

*As defined by UK law, Category A describes 'images involving penetrative sexual activity, sexual activity with an animal or sadism'. Category B describes those 'involving non-penetrative sexual activity' and Category C describes 'other indecent images not falling within categories A or B'.