May 2022 Paedophile caught with child abuse images downloaded app to hide his search history A paedophile who downloaded an app to hide his internet search history has been jailed. Basil Al-Mudalal, 68, was caught out by police when they made a surprise visit to his home. Al-Mudalal is a convicted sex offender who was banned from owning any device which did not retain information about what he had been looking at online. But when police analysed his devices they found pictures and films of children being sexually abused. The defendant, of Silver Road, Street, was sent back to jail for his latest offences. Taunton Crown Court was told he still poses a risk of reoffending, despite previously completing a sex offender programme. He admitted three offences of possessing indecent images of children and breaching the terms of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Al-Mudalal was jailed for 26 months. Prosecutor Mr Paul Grumbar said police went to his house on February 22, 2022. Al-Mulalal gave police his phone. On it was an app called ‘DuckDuckGo’ which does not retain search history. No images were found on the device but downloading the app put him in breach of his SHPO. Police then found a hard drive connected to his TV in his bedroom. Officers found multiple indecent images and movies but stopped counting at 1,000. They included material in the most serious category and the abuse of children as young as four. The defendant has previous convictions for possessing indecent images and has served stints in prison. He was given the SHPO in 2017. A report by probation assessed him as a high risk of reoffending and not manageable in the community Judge James Townsend said: “You’ve been convicted yet again of possessing images of serious child abuse. Quite clearly they were viewed by you until recently. It was a very large number of images involving significant number of victims. “You have previously offended in precisely this way and continue to offend. Probation services have little confidence that future intervention is likely to stop you offending. You have attended the Horizon programme but further work is unlikely to achieve much.” Al-Mudalal will serve half of his sentence in prison and rest on licence. He will remain subject to the SHPO and sex offender register for 10 years. March 2017 Pervert admits downloading thousands of indecent images of children A registered sex offender who downloaded thousands of indecent photos and movies of children along with extreme pornography depicting humans having sex with dogs has been sent to Taunton Crown Court to be sentenced. Basil Al-Mudalal committed the offences over a three month period at his home in Street, and was found in possession of the illegal material which spanned all categories of seriousness. When he appeared in the dock before Somerset Magistrates they were told that the 63-year-old defendant was currently subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed by the crown court after being convicted of similar previous convictions in 2014. Al-Mudalal, of Silver Road, Street, pleaded guilty that between April 15 and July 25 at Street he made indecent pseudo-photographs of children, namely 133 images and 108 movie clips of children in the most serious category A.