A prolific paedophile from Essex has been jailed for 40 months after being convicted of downloading horrific child abuse images for the third time in ten years.

Paul Thompson, 31, from Plumleys, also downloaded illegal pornographic images of adults engaging in sexual activity with animals.

He committed the offences while already subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

Basildon Crown Court heard that despite expressing a desire to change his ways, he would insist when challenged by experts that he was doing nothing wrong.

“You are resistant, or you’ve been resistant, to therapy and you are argumentative with people who are discussing these offences with you,” said Judge Samantha Cohen, reading a probation pre-sentence report.

“You seem to think that because you’re not the one who’s actually abusing these children, you’re somehow not at fault.”

The court heard Thompson had been collecting child abuse images since 2010.

He was first convicted in 2014, then again in 2017, when he was sent to prison for 15 months and given an eight-year SHPO.

He was first convicted of breaching that SHPO in 2021, by deleting his internet history without permission.

He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, requiring him to carry out unpaid work and attend rehabilitation sessions.

But they evidently did not work, because when police carried out an unannounced spot-check at his Pitsea home in January 2024, he had done it again.

He had also obtained a USB storage device and a second mobile phone without permission.

“When your supervising officers attended your address on the 22nd of January of this year, you were not expecting them,” said Judge Cohen.

“You hid from them a telephone. You hid it in an entirely inept way, by sitting on it, and they spotted it.

“You told them in your room and in an interview that you had acquired these devices because you essentially couldn’t control your urges.”

The illegal devices contained hundreds of indecent images of children.

They included 66 images and 37 videos at Category A – the most serious – showing penetrative sexual activity with children as young as five.

He also had 95 images and seven videos at Category B, and 163 images and 16 videos at Category C.

Police found seven extreme pornographic images and one prohibited image - a cartoon of children being sexually abused.

“The prosecution say this is a very serious and persistent breach,” said barrister Margia Mostafa.

“Despite the probation’s efforts with trying to rehabilitate the defendant, he’s not on board.”

Mitigating barrister Nick Bonehill said his client was “struggling” on remand, where he was bullied, but was devoting his time to self-improvement, having lost four stone in the prison gym.

His Pitsea home had been shared accommodation, the barrister said, where another resident found out about Thompson’s previous crimes and told all their housemates.

“That caused him to become somewhat of a hermit,” said Mr Bonehill, who claimed his client had to be “physically dragged” to medical appointments and suffered “panic attacks” if he left home.

He said Thompson had spent his time “sitting in a dark room with a mobile phone – and we all know where that leads. It leads to the charges in this case."

Thompson had attended the first stage of an autism assessment, but it was never completed due to his arrest.

Judge Cohen congratulated Thompson on his weight loss but said his crimes were so serious that the only suitable punishment was an immediate prison term.

“Your repeated viewing of these sort of offences creates an atmosphere on the dark web which normalises this kind of behaviour and encourages others to do the same, and also acts as a repeated, gross invasion of the privacy of the children who are in those images,” she said.

She sentenced Thompson to two years for the various SHPO breaches, 16 months consecutive for possessing Category A indecent images, and lower concurrent sentences for the other offences.

He will serve half of the 40 months in prison and the other half on licence.

She also imposed a new 10-year SHPO.

“You know what will happen if you breach your SHPO. You know what will happen if you commit further offences. You will simply go back to prison,” said Judge Cohen.

“Try your utmost to resist temptation in future.”