Fareham paedophile who ‘can’t restrain himself’ back in court after being caught with nearly 600 child abuse images

Fareham child pervert Conner Harcourt, 29, was back at Portsmouth Crown Court after being caught with graphic sex images of boys being abused.

Harcourt – a man with a self-declared sexual interest in children – was caught red handed when police were alerted to him falling foul of the law once again.

Officers turned up at his address and seized a mobile phone and a laptop when arresting him on October 28, 2020. Searches of the devices revealed 223 Category A images, 225 Category B and 132 Category C.

A baby less than a year old being raped was among the worst images.

Harcourt, of Valentine Close, was also found in breach of a previous order after failing to comply with notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order in April and May this year.

The defendant had failed to tell police of a Twitter account he had set-up in March which he sent a number of tweets from before stopping in April.

On the social media platform he urged users to ‘send me pervy’ and ‘illegal’ items.

Prosecutor Alex Kettle-Williams added: ‘He made full admissions to the Twitter account and the failure to declare the username.’

Asked why he had not told police, Harcourt replied: ‘I just didn’t.’

When quizzed over whether he had a sexual interest in children, Harcourt said: ‘Yes.’

The court heard of the defendant’s previous convictions which included sexual activity with a boy under 16 which he was given a three-year jail term for nearly 10 years ago.

Numerous other breaches were also highlighted including two breaches which led to him being handed a 12-week jail sentence suspended for two years in July 2021 – putting him in breach of the latest offences.

Bridget O’Hagan, defending, said Harcourt had autism and aspergers which had impacted his offending behaviour.

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Judge William Ashworth said to Harcourt: ‘You have order after order and keep doing this…you can’t restrain yourself.’

But the judge adjourned sentence until October 7 in order to find out more about how Harcourt’s conditions impact his behaviour.

Harcourt, who was remanded in custody, admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order and three charges of making indecent images of children.