A 24-YEAR-OLD man who collected indecent images of children on his smartphone but then sold the device was still caught by the police because some of the images had automatically downloaded to his computer, a court heard on Friday.

Harry Jenkins of Shadwell Lane, Uley, admitted having 11 images of the most serious Category A images of girls aged between two and 14 years of age, 34 images in category B and five images in category C. He was sentenced to a three year community order.

The court was told that a specialist web sharing site informed Gloucestershire Police that indecent images had been uploaded from Jenkins’ address on November 27, 2018.

Prosecutor Grace Flynn said: “Jenkins downloaded the images onto his smart phone which he sold the day before he was arrested for this offence.”

Matthew Harbinson defending said: “Unbeknown to Jenkins his phone was set up in such a way that downloaded images were backed up in the cloud which also synchronised with his Apple Mac computer at home.

“Jenkins was found with very few images on his computer. It is a quirk of technology that these images found their way onto his computer.

“He has accepted his conduct over this was not acceptable and under his own initiative he has sought help from a rehabilitation centre and he has found this very beneficial to him.”

The Judge, Recorder James Waddington QC, said to Jenkins: “When you sold your phone you did not realise that these indecent images of young girls, mainly aged between two and six, had been backed up on your home computer.

“There is no doubt your offending crosses the custody threshold, but as there were just 40 images in total and you have faced up to your offending, I am prepared to impose a three year community order instead.”

The judge ordered that Jenkins should complete 150 hours of unpaid work, attend 35 programme days and be subjected to 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He also made Jenkins subject to a sexual harm prevention order which restricts the use of the internet for the next five years.