Sex offender jailed for indecent images of children

Philip Wood was already a registered sex offender when he committed the offences

A 71-year-old man has been jailed after admitting to making thousands of indecent images of children.

Philip Wood, of Westgate Street, Gloucester, was sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court after pleading guilty to eight counts of making the images and nine counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

Wood was given the SHPO in 2020 when he was sentenced at the same court for a number of previous sexual offences.

On 23 October he was sentenced to three years in prison, and will remain a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.

Part of the SHPO handed to Wood in 2020 banned him from owning electronic devices like laptops or mobile phones without declaring them to police for inspection.

But during home visits from police between August 2023 and May 2024 he was found to have undeclared devices containing indecent images of children, and had been using an online pseudonym - which he was also banned from doing.

Police found more than 134,172 indecent pictures of children and 150 hours of video footage across the devices.

Wood pleaded guilty on 7 August and told the court that he had attended rehabilitation courses which had not worked.

'Attempts to avoid detection'

Det Con Martin Hayward, of Gloucestershire Police, said Wood had "made determined attempts to avoid detection" and had "shown a disregard to the court order".

He added: "Making indecent images of children is child sexual abuse, and perpetrators have harmed children by creating this material.

"We are determined to protect those who are most vulnerable in our society from dangerous offenders."