Jail for paedophile whose ‘evil’ obsession fuelled demand for children to suffer extreme sexual violence

A paedophile whose “evil” actions fuelled the demand for young children to suffer extreme sexual violence has been jailed for 28 months.

Henry Hunter was also handed a six year sexual harm prevention order which bans him from having unsupervised contact with children.

Appearing at Lerwick Sheriff Court from Grampian Prison on Wednesday, Hunter was told that his “horrendous” behaviour required an extended prison term due to the risk he posed the public.

Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie also asked the court to impose the prevention order as it was the accused’s second conviction for possessing child abuse images.

The 37-year-old previously admitted downloading indecent images, some of which involved children who had been bound, gagged or made to wear masks.

The court heard there were a total of 39 Class A images – the highest level of offending – 27 Class C and a further 2,226 were described as “borderline”.

The children were aged between two and 16.

Mr MacKenzie said Hunter’s offending “stimulated the demand for very young children to be subjected to extreme sexual violence”.

Given his previous conviction, the fiscal said Hunter seemed “determined to persist” with this behaviour and the order was therefore necessary.

The court heard Hunter bought the device used to access the images the day after his licence expired for his previous offence.

There was a “striking resemblance” between the two cases, the fiscal said previously.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said it was an “extremely serious offence” with a number of “significantly aggravating factors”.

These included Hunter’s previous conviction, the short timeframe since his previous licence expired and the “extreme nature of the images”.

The sheriff said the images showed “horrendous abuse of young vulnerable children”.

He said the custodial sentence imposed after his last conviction “did not deter you from repeated offending”.

“Given the gravity of the offence you have committed and previous criminal record a custodial sentence is the only appropriate disposal in your case,” he said.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said reports produced for the hearing showed his client had been “genuinely ashamed” of his behaviour.

Given that he was under police supervision at the time, Mr Allan said it could potentially be viewed as a “cry for help”.

The solicitor said his client recognised his behaviour had been “evil”.

He said Hunter wanted to seek help for what he considered to be an “addiction”.

Mr Allan said his client needed to have “hope” that he will be able to stop this offending.

“Otherwise his life would simply be a revolving door going in and out of custody”.

While he acknowledged the 10 month period of offending stated in the charge – from October 2023 to August 2024 -  Mr Allan said his client maintained that he did not start accessing the images immediately.

He said this happened when “things started going wrong” for him – including a poster being put up in his accommodation identifying him as a sex offender.

Mr Allan said his fuelled his “paranoia and anxiety”.

The terms of his sexual harm prevention order state that he cannot own or possess an internet enabled device without police approval.

He is also prohibited from using any software capable of disguising or deleting search history.

Hunter must allow police to search any of his devices, software or internet history when requested and without having to obtain an a warrant.

His jail term was backdated to 27th August, 2024.

Upon release, Hunter must serve a further 18 month sentence in the community,

He will be on the sex offenders’ register for an “indefinite period”.