A PAEDOPHILE was compared to a “drug addict before rehabilitation” after looking at indecent images of children just months after being spared jail.

Andrew Booth was handed a suspended sentence in September 2019 for having a catalogue of abuse images on his personal devices.

However, just four months later the police visited the 48-year-old’s home to inspect his devices and more images were found.

Booth presented an LG phone for inspection, on which officers found open tabs with search history that showed he had tried to search for child abuse material.

A subsequent examination of the phone found seven category A images - the most serious kind - with 23 category B images and 75 category C images.

Booth, of Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff, was handed a further rehabilitation order at Basildon Crown Court yesterday.

Christopher Martin, mitigating, said the images were accessed between September 2019 and January 2020 - before Booth’s treatment for his actions had begun in April 2020.

He said: “It’s similar to that of a drug addict who continues to take drugs until a rehabilitation requirement, and then ceases once the requirement begins.

“The breach is in respect of the category C images. Since he has started his engagement with probation, he has started and completed the Horizon programme and there has been no offending whatsoever.”

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He added: “His mother passed away three years ago and now he lives in almost complete isolation.

“He has one friend that he speaks to on the phone but doesn’t see in person.

“A ten year relationship broke up because of the original matters.”

Judge Andrew Hurst said he was just about persuaded to not send Booth to prison but urged him to remember that the children in the images are “real children”.

He gave Booth another 12 month suspended prison term with 100 hours of unpaid work.

The judge said: “These are real children being abused by real people.

“The scars will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”

A PAEDOPHILE looked up indecent images after being spared jail “like a drug addict before rehabilitation”, a court heard.

Andrew Booth has been given a further rehabilitation order after he left tabs open on his phone which showed he had searched for indecent images of children.

The 48-year-old of Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff was given a suspended sentence order for having indecent images of children in September 2019.

But in January 2020, just four months after the order, police came by his home to inspect it and any devices he had.

Booth presented the LG phone for inspection, on which officers found open tabs with search history that showed he had tried to search for child abuse material.

A subsequent examination of the phone found seven category A images - the most serious kind - with 23 category B images and 75 category C images.

Basildon Crown Court heard that Booth had accessed the majority of the images before his first court sentencing, but some category C images were accessed after.

But Christopher Martin, mitigating, said the images were accessed between September 2019 and January 2020 - before Booth’s treatment for his actions had begun in April 2020.

He said: “It’s similar to that of a drug addict who continues to take drugs until a rehabilitation requirement, and then ceases once the requirement begins.

“The breach is in respect of the category C images. Since he has started his engagement with probation, he has started and completed the Horizon programme and there has been no offending whatsoever.”

He added: “His mother passed away three years ago and now he lives in almost complete isolation.

“He has one friend that he speaks to on the phone but doesn’t see in person.

“A ten year relationship broke up because of the original matters.”

Judge Andrew Hurst said he was just about persuaded to not send Booth to prison.

He gave Booth another 12 month suspended prison term with 100 hours of unpaid work.

The judge said: “These are real children being abused by real people.

“The scars will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”