A ‘lonely’ convicted Shipton-under-Wychwood paedophile, Anthony Edwards, standing before a crown court judge for the fourth time in a decade, was spared imprisonment due to the presence of McAfee anti-virus software on his laptop.
Anthony Edwards was cautioned that the ‘only penalty applicable’ for any future violation of his sexual harm prevention order or other crimes over the next two years would be an immediate incarceration.
On Thursday, Oxford Crown Court was informed that 63-year-old Anthony Edwards was first issued an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and registered as a lifelong sex offender following his 2013 conviction for the sexual abuse of a minor.
Anthony Edwards was subsequently convicted of possessing obscene photos of minors and, in 2018, for violating the court order intended to restrict his internet access.
Prosecuting, Robert Lindsey said a police officer installed monitoring software on Anthony Edwards’ HP laptop in October 2018.
Three months later, in January 2019, Anthony Edwards asked his supervising officer if he could ‘defragment’ the laptop’s hard drive. “The officer said no,” the prosecutor told the court.
By 2020, the defendant raised concerns that his laptop was running slowly and that it might have been hit by a computer virus. The officer was ‘somewhat suspicious’ of Anthony Edwards’ explanations, Mr Lindsey said – prompting the judge to add: “I’m not surprised.”
Checks showed that although the police monitoring software was still installed on the computer, it had not been working since April 2019.
Anthony Edwards had downloaded McAfee anti-virus software and the computer’s hard drive was ‘empty’, indicating that the convicted sex offender had deleted his internet browser history in spite of a court order banning him from doing so.
Anthony Edwards, of Ballards Close, Shipton-under-Wychwood, pleaded guilty to breaching his sexual harm prevention order.
He also admitted breaching sex offender notification requirements by failing to attend a police station within three days of his annual requirement to ‘re-register’ his details in 2021.
Mitigating, Gordana Austin said Anthony Edwards felt ‘isolated and lonely’. His mother, with whom he lived and for whom he cared, sadly died last year and the council was looking to move him to supported accommodation.
Sentencing him to a two year community order, Recorder John Hardy KC told Anthony Edwards: “Courts impose orders upon you and people like you for reasons.
“Where those orders are breached, courts normally take the view that a person who’s been leniently sentenced in the past is being contemptuous of the order of the court and therefore immediate custody is the only sanction available.
“That will be the case if you breach the order I am now about to impose.”
Anthony Edwards was ordered to complete up to 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and was banned from deleting his internet history or tampering with ‘e-safe’ software installed on his devices by the police.
Anthony Edwards must pay £200 in costs to the Crown Prosecution Service.
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