Sex offender back in jail over online offences

Burgess was jailed in 2011 for sexually abusing a child

A sex offender dubbed a "danger to children" has been jailed again over online offences involving hundreds of indecent images.

Kenneth Burgess, from Carlisle, had 13 category A images of children as well as 894 extreme photos when officers seized his phone in August.

Burgess had earlier admitted three charges of making indecent photographs of children, possessing extreme pornographic imagery, distributing an indecent photograph of a child and publishing an obscene article.

The 56-year-old, who was jailed in 2011 for sexually abusing a child, was jailed for 16 months by a judge at Carlisle Crown Court.

Police went to Burgess's home in Bannisdale Way on 1 August and seized his phone, finding indecent images of children and chat exchanges where he described depraved fantasies.

It further emerged that within these messages, Burgess had distributed an indecent image of a child to another person.

The court heard his previous convictions included robbery, grievous bodily harm and, in 2011, sexually abusing a child.

A probation officer concluded there was no stable pathway for Burgess in the community at present and his barrister said the defendant acknowledged an immediate prison sentence lay in store.

Jailing Burgess for 16 months, Judge Michael Fanning told him: "Given an opportunity to reoffend, I don't doubt you would take that opportunity.

"You are a danger to children."

Later this month, a judge is due to consider an application by the prosecution for further restrictions on his liberty to be imposed in the form of a sexual harm prevention order.