Sex offender caught with child abuse images told police he should be 'locked up forever' after order breach

James Storey, 34, was convicted of possessing indecent images of children was placed on the sex offenders register in 2009 and convicted of a sexual offence against a child in 2016.

He then re-offended when he was caught with more disgusting child abuse images four years ago and was placed under the strict conditions of the prevention order at a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The conditions of the order include being prohibited from deleting his internet history and to declaring all the devices he possessed that can access the internet.

Storey returned to the dock last month where the court heard he had contacted police to confess to trying to access an online chat site but had panicked after he could not close the application down last year. Officers attended at his flat the following day and after a short delay in answering the door the constables could hear Storey moving things around the property and had shouted “I’ll be just a minute”.

The officers were eventually allowed entry and Storey immediately admitted he had been deleting the internet history on devices including a laptop, a mobile phone and a PlayStation 4.

James Storey outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court | Alexander Lawrie

He then led the constables into his bedroom where he produced an illicit mobile phone from a hidden cut out section of his bed that he had never declared to owning.

The court was told the repeat offender had told the the officers he was “disgusting” and that he “should be locked up forever”. He was also described as being “in a distressed state” during the incident at the property in Musselburgh, East Lothian, on November 2 last year.

Storey pleaded guilty to breaching the SHPO when he appeared at the capital court from custody last month and he was back in the dock for sentencing on Monday.

The court was told Storey is currently subject to the requirements of the sex offenders register to March 2034 and is also under the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order until March 2029.

Sheriff Fergus Thomson sentenced Storey to a community payback order as an alternative to custody where he will be supervised by the social work department for three years.

Storey was jailed for 16 months and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years in March last year after he was convicted of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner with a sexual aggravation the previous year. He also has non-custodial convictions for possessing indecent images of children from 2009 and 2021.

Storey was also placed on the register and handed a community disposal after he was convicted of a sexual offence against a female child under the age of 13 in 2016.