A convicted murderer is back behind bars after downloading sick sexual abuse images of children. Terence Bowen, 71, spent 15 years in jail after being convicted of murder in 1983.
He was released on licence in 1998 but is back in prison after police received intelligence that he had uploaded an indecent image of a child onto the internet. His lawyer said Bowen, who remains on licence for the rest of his life, had become 'less supervised' and was being monitored 'remotely'.
Bowen, from Salford, was jailed for eight months after admitting a string of offences. Prosecutors said that they had no details of the facts surrounding Bowen's murder conviction, because it predated the creation of the Crown Prosecution Service in 1986.
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Manchester Crown Court was told that police executed a search warrant at Bowen's home in July 2020 and seized a computer and mobile phone. On the devices they discovered 15 category A images, the most serious type, 109 category B and 122 category C images.
Bowen was interviewed by officers and made 'some admissions' about having an 'inappropriate interest' in indecent images, but denied distributing images. He was only charged by post last year, and was then recalled to prison in March due to his previous conviction where he has remained ever since.
Defending, Dan Gaskell said Bowen pleaded guilty at the first opportunity before magistrates. He said Bowen was using cannabis at the time of the offending, as a method of pain relief for age related 'health difficulties' he was suffering from.
He said Bowen had complied with his supervision requirements since being released in 1998, and since 2018 he was monitored 'remotely'. "It may have led to him living perhaps a less supervised life," Mr Gaskell said.
He appealed for the judge to take into account the 12 months Bowen has spent in prison, because it would not automatically count towards his sentence. Judge Rachel Smith agreed and reduced the punishment to eight months, after also taking into account a one-third reduction for pleading guilty.
She also imposed a sexual harm prevention order to last 10 years, saying that Bowen poses an 'unquantifiable risk in relation to children'. Bowen, of Mark Avenue, Salford, pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing indecent images of children and three counts of making indecent images.
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