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Jailed ex-Army officer Phillip Dutfield back behind bars

Maidstone Crown Court
Maidstone Crown Court

A former Army officer jailed more than four years ago for possessing "depraved" child sex abuse images has been put back behind bars for similar offending.

Police raided Phillip Dutfield's home and discovered he had indecent pictures of children and extreme pornography of bestiality on mobile phones and a memory stick.

The 56-year-old grandfather had further breached the terms of a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) by owning a laptop computer capable of accessing the internet, a digital camera, memory stick and two mobile phones.

Dutfield, formerly of Old Castle Walk, Gillingham and Church Street, Boughton Monchelsea, admitted five charges of breaching the SOPO, two of possessing indecent photographs of a child and three of possessing extreme pornography.

Jailing him for 16 months, Judge Jeremy Gold QC said at Maidstone Crown Court Dutfield was in flagrant breach of the order.

Now of no fixed address, he was jailed for six months in January 2006 after the images were found at his Gillingham home in November 2004.

Then working as an administrator at a home for people with learning difficulties, he said he downloaded all kinds of material from the internet "because I have a morbid interest in my world".

Dutfield, who was an Army captain, admitted 10 charges of possessing indecent images of children.

Judge Jeremy Carey called downloading such material "vile exploitation".

Charlotte Newell, defending on Tuesday, said although Dutfield had a computer, he did not actually use it to access the internet.

The number of child abuse images totalled seven and were at levels one and three, the highest being five.

Miss Newell said Dutfield lost his rented accommodation after being remanded in custody and, therefore, saw the merit in staying in prison to prepare for "life in the outside world".

The judge warned: "The SOPO continues. If you continue to breach it, and it is entirely your choice, you will be brought back before the court and receive further increasing terms of imprisonment."

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