Convicted Shrewsbury sex offender sent back to jail
A convicted sex offender has been sent back to jail after almost 180 indecent images were found on his mobile phone.
Stephen Reed, 48, was arrested at his Shrewsbury town centre home after police officers intercepted a series of messages between him another known sex offender on January 31.
The crown heard that he had been released from prison in April 2017 for previous sex offences.
Mr Paul Whitfield, prosecuting barrister, said: "The police intercepted communications between the defendant and another man from north Yorkshire, a registered sex offender, known to the police. He was at this time involved in explicit communications about girls as young as eight.
"Images were downloaded from Yorkshire to Reed who received them on his telephone."
He added that as a young man he lived in London and had other convictions for petty matters and theft.
The court heard Reed, of Rope Walk Court, viewed and deleted the images which resulted in the phone being seized by the officers and him being charged with making indecent images.
At the hearing yesterday he pleaded guilty to making 63 images category A, the worst; 26 in category B and 90 in category C.
Reed was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order after being jailed for eight years, in Exeter, in 2010 for offences including rape of a girl under 16, undecent assault and gross indecency.
Mr Stephen Scully, mitigating solcitor advocate, said the defendant was likely to be recalled to prison by the parole board as he had been on licence, when he committed the latest crimes.
Judge Peter Barrie jailed Reed for a total of 12 months for the latest offences which will run alongside the remaining term which is due to expire in 2022. The judge said the SHPO was now indefinite and he ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the images.
