A PAEDOPHILE with a previous conviction has been given a community order for downloading indecent images of children after he said he wanted to change his ways. At the sentencing of 55-year-old Steven Birchall, pictured, Dorch-ester Crown Court was told that he wanted help to put an end to his sexual attraction to children.

Birchall, of Ferrybridge Cottages, Weymouth, admitted 28 counts of downloading indecent images which were found on hard drives at his home during police raids. Over 3,000 images were seized when officers checked up on Birchall upon his release from prison in 2011. He had previously been sentenced to 12 months in prison after admitting 30 charges of making indecent images of children – ranging from toddlers to teenagers. Indecent images are rated on a scale from one to five, with five being the most serious.

Prosecutor Jennie Rickman said that of the images found this time round 2,393 were level one, 163 grade two images, 145 at level three, 283 at level four and nine grade five images.

Although Birchall admitted downloading the images, he said all except four had been downloaded whilst he was awaiting sentence for the previous conviction.

Of these, three were level one images and one level three.

Birchall, who admitted being sexually attracted to children, was ordered to attend the Thames Valley Sex Offender Groupwork Programme.

He was described in court as a ‘socially isolated person without very many fri-ends.’ Birchall was given a three-year community order and a Sexual Offences Prevention Order subject to any further order. He is already on the sex offenders’ register but will remain so for a further five years.

In mitigation, Lee Christmas, said Birchall now wants to stop his paedophilia.

Sentencing, Judge Jarvis, said: “You are described as a socially isolated person without very many friends or contacts with whom you share your daily existence.

“There seems to be some suggestion that you really now understand that this sort of behaviour needs to stop and you need to change your ways. These are innocent little children.

“Not innocent now, unfortunately. Their innocence is lost because someone has forced them to participate to provide images for people like you. There is any number of young children throughout the world being abused.”

Explanation

Claude Knights, director of Kidscape, said that often when jail terms are imposed, the rehabilitation programme offenders undergo is not coherent or successful.

She said the Thames Valley Sex Offender Groupwork Programme is mandatory and hopes it will help Birchall stop these ‘abhorrent’ crimes.

She added: “The trouble is that when offenders don’t get a coherent rehabilitation behind bars, they don’t change their behaviour so they come out, do something bad, go back to prison again, are released and so on.

“I think it is one in four prisoners are re-offenders and so they have failed to be rehabilitated in custody and that is something the probation service needs to look at.”

She added: “The Thames Valley Programme is robust, it’s totally mandatory and completed with ongoing mentoring.

“The main aim is to protect children, to make the offender see what they have done.”