Bournemouth sex offender jailed for having indecent images of children
59-year-old Richard Morris has been handed nearly three years in prison
A registered sex offender from Bournemouth, found in possession of hundreds of indecent images, has been jailed for over two years.
Richard Simon Morris, who's 59, has appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court.
He admitted three counts of possessing indecent images of children.
Morris has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison - with an extended licence period of a further 18 months.
An offender manager and his colleague visited Morris, who was subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, at his home address on June 2023.
They asked to inspect his phone and the defendant produced a different one to the device he had been seen using moments earlier.
They challenged Morris and when he showed them the other device, officers saw what they believed to be indecent images.
Morris was arrested and a number of electronic devices were seized.
The defendant was released on bail and when officers paid a further visit to his address in August 2023, an inspection of a mobile phone again revealed suspected indecent images.
In total, officers uncovered more than 1,500 indecent images of children.
These were categorised with 282 at the most serious Category A, 446 Category B images and 811 Category C images which were both accessible and inaccessible.
Detective Constable Phillip Riggs said:
“Richard Morris is a persistent offender who continued to illegally access indecent images despite being a registered sex offender and the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, showing a clear lack of remorse for his previous offending or the sanctions imposed on him by the courts.
“Thanks to the continued monitoring by his offender manager, this repeated offending was identified and he has been brought back to court to face the consequences of his actions.
“The Paedophile Online Investigation Team will continue to work with our partner agencies to ensure offences of this nature are thoroughly investigated and offenders are brought to justice.
"POLIT officers go to great lengths alongside other teams and agencies to ensure people are brought to justice for displaying a sexual interest in children."