Stafford sex offender guilty of ignoring sanctions
A grandfather who downloaded child porn from the internet refused to comply with tough new sanctions on sex offenders because he said they breached his human rights, a court heard.
Pensioner Thomas Eaton claimed the regulations imposed last year by the Government, which involved giving up bank account details and information on foreign travel, were a retrospective punishment that he should not have to comply with.
He put his case before a jury at Stafford Crown Court, but was found guilty of failing to comply with an order requiring him to register as a sex offender.
Eaton, aged 66, of Peter James Court, Stafford, was sentenced in May 2011 to a three year community order and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years after admitting five charges of making indecent images of children. The court heard then that Eaton became 'addicted' to downloading child porn from the internet.
Police found traces of almost 29,000 indecent images of children on his computer.
In August last year the Government made the registration of sex offenders rules much stricter, requiring them, amongst other things, to give details of their bank accounts, credit cards and foreign travel.
Eaton refused to comply with the requirements and denied the offence on what Judge Simon Tonking called 'an intellectual argument'.
Judge Tonking ordered Eaton to do 100 hours unpaid community work and pay £750 costs.
