A convicted paedophile said "oops" when he was confronted about gaps in his internet history.
Jeffrey Wade was handed a 16 month sentence, suspended for two years, and had to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years in October 2020, when he admitted three counts of downloading and one of possessing indecent images of children, and one count of possessing prohibited images of children. Wade was caught when he took an Amazon Kindle containing sick pictures to Cash Converters.
He had been "downloading and stockpiling" more than 4,000 child sex abuse photos and videos since 2016. His collection included images of babies and toddlers being molested and children as young as five or six being raped.
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Wade, 37, took his Kindle to Cash Converters and received £15 for it. However, when staff came to wipe the device, they found the disturbing images and contacted the police, leading to him admitting to the crimes.
However, he walked free in October 2020 after a judge heard he was "motivated to put this behaviour behind him". As part of his suspended sentence, any device of Wade's that could access the internet had to display its internet history in its entirety.
Today (March 3), Wade appeared at Liverpool Crown Court via video link from HMP Liverpool to be sentenced, having committed breaches of the suspended sentence and the Sexual Harm Prevention Order he was subject to.
Prosecuting, Mr Blasbery told the court that Wade's offender manager paid him a routine visit at his East Prescot Road home in Dovecot on May 20, 2022. During the visit, the manager found a black Nokia device.
The device had a Virtual Private Network (VPN) downloaded. VPNs give an internet user an opportunity to encrypt their use of the internet, making it harder for third parties to track their online activity.
Wade's Nokia also showed use of search engine DuckDuckGo, which protects the privacy of internet users. Additionally, there were gaps in his internet history on Google Chrome.
When the officer mentioned this to Wade, he said "oops, yeah".
On May 26, an examination of the phone was conducted. This confirmed that two VPNs were installed, along with use of DuckDuckGo, while an expert said that Wade had to take "positive action" to install and activate these.
Wade, who suffers from mental health problems including schizophrenia, attended a police interview on August 5, 2022. It was put to him that he should not have any way of conducting secure internet browsing. He said "I understand, it won't happen again".
The device did not contain any illegal images and Wade said he used the VPN for downloading films. However, the use of it breached terms he was subject to.
This meant that he appeared on video link from prison, as the offence took place during the length of his initial suspended sentence.
Mr Recorder Leach QC was unable to pass sentence today. Wade will need to undergo a psychiatric assessment in order to ascertain the role his mental health problems played in his offending, as well as to decide whether he has a realistic problem of rehabilitation, before the judge sentences him.
As such, Wade will appear at Liverpool Crown Court in May.
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