Gosport man downloaded more than 8,000 child abuse images

Pervert Alexander Davies, 26, repeatedly downloaded images on three phones - and even continued after being arrested and released.

At Portsmouth Crown Court he asked a judge for mercy and ‘one last chance to do good’ while reading out a letter from prison over a videolink in court.

But a judge ruled the case was too serious and jailed him for 16 months after he admitted two charges of distributing child abuse images, 12 possession charges and one of having extreme pornography.

The court heard how police raided Davies’s home and found two mobile phones containing indecent images and videos of children - with the defendant trying to hide one phone under his bed.

When arrested Davies, of Magennis Close, Gosport, denied wrongdoing and ‘suggested that his father was due to be released from prison and that he was set up,’ prosecutor Simon Foster said.

A third phone was handed back to him by police after his arrest as it was clean - but he downloaded more images.

‘He took the phone that was returned to the family on the basis that it contained no images, and he continued precisely the same activity as before and distributed images,’ Mr Foster said.

Messages uncovered on the third phone revealed Davies swapped messages with other perverts ‘indicating a wilfulness to exchange images’.

Analysis revealed Davies had 507 category A images, 322 category B and 7,945 rated in the less serious category C.

Jailing Davies, Recorder Michael Bowes QC said one image showed ‘an extremely graphic assault on a baby less than one year old’ and added in others ‘there’s restraint and discernible pain or distress’.

Reading his letter before he was jailed, Davies said: ‘I can see what I’ve done is wrong. I wish I could turn the clock back.’

He added: ‘Jail has taught me that life is priceless and so is freedom. Where my freedom has been taken away and my life has been changes it’s made me think

‘Please your honour, can you give me one last chance to do good.’

All three phones must be destroyed. Davies, who has no previous convictions, must sign the sex offenders’ register for a decade and an order restricts his internet use for the same period.

Daniel Reilly, mitigating, said: ‘Whilst he is 26 years of age, he is a very young 26-year-old.

‘He struggled significantly in both primary and secondary education and has severe learning difficulties.’

An educational psychologist’s report found Davies was only 0.3 per cent above others of his age in literacy and numerical ability - and is in the bottom two per cent for his spelling, Mr Reilly said outlining the defendant’s learning difficulties.

Recorder Bowes described the case as ‘a serious and quite complex matter’ and that the defendant displayed a ‘lack of maturity’.