SOUTHAMPTON MAN STEVEN KNIGHT CHANGED HIS NAME BEFORE DOWNLOADING INDECENT IMAGES OF CHILDREN
A convicted pervert changed his name before downloading indecent images of children.Steven Knight, aged 43, was found with 19 images on his personal phone after police were alerted to suspicious activity.
This was less than a decade after he was released from prison following a conviction of three similar offences.
Knight, who previously left prison as Steven King, changed his name by deed poll after his release.
Prosecutor Keely Harvey told Southampton Crown Court that police carried out a search of Knight’s property on January 23, 2023.
During the search, a work phone, a laptop, and a personal Samsung mobile phone were found.
The police discovered 12 category A images—considered the most serious—along with four category B and three category C images.
Descriptive search terms were used by Knight, and some images depicted very young children.
Searches for non-sexual child abuse images and an app for anonymous browsing were also found on his phone.
Knight admitted to viewing all the images, with the most recent being a month before his arrest, but stated he did not save the images to his device and knew they were illegal.
He denied any sexual attraction to children, claiming he was aroused at other people looking at the images.
Knight pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs of a child between June 8, 2021, and January 22, 2023.
He was unrepresented in court and expressed that he was helped by the offender management team at Hampshire Constabulary with a desire to turn his life around.
The judge, Nicholas Rowland, sentenced Knight to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years, and imposed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order along with 180 hours of unpaid work.
The judge emphasized the seriousness of such offences, stating, “The images were in an inaccessible location, but internet searches revealed what he had been looking for...
There were also searches for non-sexual child abuse images on the personal phone, and an app that keeps online searching anonymous, as well.
The defendant told police he had viewed all the images, but the most recent time was one month before his arrest.
He said he knew they were illegal and did not save them to his device.
The defendant denied any sexual attraction to children and said he was aroused at other people looking at the images.
Passing sentence, Judge Rowland said this was Knight’s final chance to turn his life around, highlighting the global impact of such images and emphasizing that while the offences were non-contact, they remained very serious.
