A convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Wade, remarked “oops” when questioned with discrepancies in his internet history.
In October 2020, Jeffrey Wade received a 16-month sentence, suspended for two years, and was required to register as a sex offender for 10 years after admitting to three counts of downloading and one count of possessing indecent photos of children, as well as one count of possessing forbidden images of children. Wade was apprehended when he brought an Amazon Kindle carrying illicit images to Cash Converters.
Since 2016, he has been “downloading and accumulating” over 4,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse. His collection comprised photographs of infants and toddlers being sexually abused, as well as youngsters as young as five or six being raped.
Jeffrey Wade, 37, sold his Kindle at Cash Converters for £15. Upon staff attempting to clean the device, they discovered the unsettling photographs and notified the police, resulting in his confession to the offences.
However, Jeffrey Wade walked free in October 2020 after a judge heard he was “motivated to put this behaviour behind him”. As part of his suspended sentence, any device of Jeffrey Wade’s that could access the internet had to display its internet history in its entirety.
Jeffrey Wade appeared at Liverpool Crown Court via video link from HMP Liverpool to be sentenced, having committed breaches of the suspended sentence and the Sexual Harm Prevention Order he was subject to.
Prosecuting, Mr Blasbery told the court that Wade’s offender manager paid him a routine visit at his East Prescot Road home in Dovecot on May 20, 2022. During the visit, the manager found a black Nokia device.
The device had a Virtual Private Network (VPN) downloaded. VPNs give an internet user an opportunity to encrypt their use of the internet, making it harder for third parties to track their online activity.
Jeffrey Wade’s Nokia also showed use of search engine DuckDuckGo, which protects the privacy of internet users. Additionally, there were gaps in his internet history on Google Chrome.
When the officer mentioned this to Jeffrey Wade, he said “oops, yeah”.
On May 26, an examination of the phone was conducted. This confirmed that two VPNs were installed, along with use of DuckDuckGo, while an expert said that Wade had to take “positive action” to install and activate these.
Jeffrey Wade, who suffers from mental health problems including schizophrenia, attended a police interview on August 5, 2022. It was put to him that he should not have any way of conducting secure internet browsing. He said “I understand, it won’t happen again”.
The device did not contain any illegal images and Jeffrey Wade said he used the VPN for downloading films. However, the use of it breached terms he was subject to.
This meant that he appeared on video link from prison, as the offence took place during the length of his initial suspended sentence.
Mr Recorder Leach QC was unable to pass sentence today. Jeffrey Wade will need to undergo a psychiatric assessment in order to ascertain the role his mental health problems played in his offending, as well as to decide whether he has a realistic problem of rehabilitation, before the judge sentences him.
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