December 2014 Paedophile jailed after ignoring order imposed to protect children A MAN previously described as one of Warrington’s biggest hoarders of paedophilic images is back behind bars after breaching the terms of his sexual offences prevention order (SOPO). Alan Webb, of Greenings Court, was sentenced to 16 months in prison at Warrington Crown Court last Wednesday after he was found in possession of two laptops, which he is prohibited from owning under the court order. The 34-year-old’s blatant disregard for the law was revealed with thanks to the help of the Warrington Guardian, the court heard. Webb was originally sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in April 2009 after he was found with 34,569 indecent images of children on his computer. Prosecuting, Jonathan Austin said: “They were very explicit and were said to be sickening and disturbing.” Many of the images were of youngsters aged five and six but some were as young as two. Since his release from prison, Webb was visited by a police officer on nine occasions – each time he was reminded of the terms of his SOPO and each time he said he had complied with the order. In October, a police officer in Bradford visited the home of another registered sex offender. It was during this visit that he noticed another man in the house using a laptop on sites including Facebook and Bitcoin – this man was later identified as Webb. When the officer asked for his name, he refused to provide any information other than that he was called Alan. But the question of Webb’s identity was soon answered after the officer found a report of Webb’s previous court appearance on the Warrington Guardian website. He was arrested on October 18 and he admitted to owning two laptops and that he had been using the internet for the past 18 months. Defending, Kyra Badman said the devices had been used for ‘entirely innocent purposes’. She added: “He now realises how important it is to comply with the order – no matter how minor.” But Judge Raj Shetty said his rule breaking was ‘persistent and deliberate’. He said: “You decided what part of the law and order did not apply to you and that it was optional. Those who fail an order cannot expect a light sentence. “In my view this is so serious that only a custody sentence can be justified.” April 2009 Could this be Warrington’s sickest internet paedophile? ONE of Warrington’s biggest hoarders of paedophilic images has been jailed after detectives unearthed more than 34,500 indecent images of young children. Twenty-eight-year-old Alan Webb, of Poplars Avenue, Orford appeared at Warrington Crown Court on Friday after admitting possessing, downloading and file sharing indecent photos of children. The court heard Webb, a cheque clearing operator, ranked himself as a near genius with computers and had hidden 34,569 images of children, many of whom were aged five and six but some were as young as two. Brett Williamson, prosecuting, said more than 21,000 photos were level one images sexualising children but 722 were at level five showing youngsters involved in the most sickening acts. Investigators also found 51 videos graded one to four in Webb’s possession after executing a search warrant at his home last April 22. Mr Williamson said Webb’s seedy activities came to light when his IP address was identified during an American investigation into chat programme Google Hello that allowed users to download large amounts of images and comment on the photos. He added: “He admitted using Google Hello over two years, five days a week. He said his initial preference was for 15-year-old females but over time this has reduced to level one images of children aged between six and 12 but that is a probable conservative estimate. “He admitted sexual gratification from the images and said he was surprised by the number on his computer. ”It is clear he has been actively involved in possession and dstributution of images of children over a number of years using a variety of computer programmes.” The court heard Webb was previously of good character. Nova Howarth, defending, said: “He has huge consideration of the enormous embarrassment he has caused his family. “He had not appreciated the wider picture of abuse that these children were subject to. He accepts it is not acceptable behaviour.” Judge Stephen Clarke jailed Webb for two-and-a-half years, disqualified him from working with children, ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register for life and imposed a host of sexual offence prevention orders. He said: “This is the largest number the court has come across in recent times. “There are real victims in these cases. They are the children. They are four, five and six years of age and subject to the most appalling sexual depravity for your sexual gratification. “They were ruthlessly exploited and what impact it will have on them when they grow up is incalculable. “How people can do that to little children defies imagination.”