Police have praised a youngster who helped them to bring a prolific York sex offender to justice.
The 15-year-old bought a secondhand phone from a car boot sale last summer, to pursue his interest in technology and fixing broken mobiles.
But when he got this phone working again, he was horrified by what he discovered.
Once he managed to get the phone switched on, he was surprised to find the passcode saved as the lock screen image.
After typing in the code, the boy was automatically subjected to a series of indecent images that appeared unprompted as a slideshow.
Text notes about child abuse also appeared.
Once the slideshow had finished, a sinister message appeared on the screen referring to hopes that a young child would find the phone.
This was followed by more disturbing images and references about the phone’s previous owner.
Understandably shocked, the teenager went with his mum to a North Yorkshire Police station. He handed in the phone and provided officers with details about what he had discovered.
Quick-thinking actions
Police carried out an extensive investigation and identified the phone’s owner as 51-year-old registered sex offender Karl Fox of Burton Stone Lane in York.
Thanks to evidence found on the phone, police proved that Fox had breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order 15 times. The order had been handed to him in 2004 following offences of outraging public decency.
Officers also uncovered further ‘pseudo’ indecent images of children and graphic self-written fantasies about child sexual abuse on a number of other phones that were found at his home address.
Fox was arrested and remanded in custody before he appeared at York Crown Court at the end of last month charged with:
- 15 breaches of the Sexual Harm Prevention Order preventing him from attending any beach, public park, or coastline.
- three cases of indecent image of children offences including make/take, distribute, and possess.
On Friday 23 February he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison, handed indefinite registered sexual offender status and given a new Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
This prohibits him from using any device capable of accessing the internet, or having contact with any child under the age of 16 unless inadvertent and not readily avoidable.
It also bars him from leaving his home without wearing a monitoring device.
Detective Constable Charlotte White, who led the investigation, said: “It was Fox’s goal for a child to find the phone and his actions meant that a 15-year-old boy was subjected to viewing the horrific and revolting contents within it.
“But without the teen recognising the seriousness of what he had found, and having the courage to report it to us, we would not have known that Fox was brazenly breaching his conditions.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him as his quick-thinking actions meant we were able to launch a full investigation leading to Fox’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment.”