Jail for twice convicted sex offender

A convicted paedophile has been jailed after a police check of his mobile phone revealed he had accessed indecent images of children.

Simon Wilders, 42, was visited at his home address on 1 December 2024 by specialist officers who manage sexual offenders.

Following two previous convictions for online offences involving children, Wilders was handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) at Cambridge Crown Court in April 2021.

The SHPO stated he must not use any device capable of accessing the internet unless it had the capacity to retain and display the history of internet use.

During the visit, Wilders confessed to officers that he had wiped his mobile phone, resetting it to factory settings, and therefore deleted his internet search history, breaching the SHPO.

Police installed monitoring software on Wilders’ mobile phone following this visit, as he was perceived to be a high-risk offender.

A week later, the monitoring software notified officers that Wilder had viewed an indecent video of a child in the early hours of 7 December 2024.

The video Wilder viewed was deemed to be category A, the most serious classification of child indecent images or videos.

Further checks of Wilders’ phone showed that he had been using two aliases in his online activity, further breaching his Sexual Offences Notification requirements by not registering these as alias names with police.

Wilders, of Victoria Road, Cambridge, was arrested on 19 December 2024 and on Friday (11 April) at Huntingdon Law Courts, was jailed for one year and seven months after pleading guilty to making an indecent photograph / pseudo-photograph of a child.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely and a new SHPO was made for ten years, to monitor any future offending.

DC Paul Evans, from the specialist management of sexual or violent offenders’ unit (MOSOVO), said: “Wilders’ attempted to cover his tracks by deleting browsing history on his phone, but thanks to police monitoring software, we were alerted to this.

“Wilders shows complete disregard for his sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and notification requirements, which are in place to safeguard children.

“These new convictions reflect the serious sexual risk of harm he poses to children and I am pleased he is now behind bars.”

Anyone who is concerned someone may have been convicted of a sex offence, and could be posing a risk to a child, can apply for disclosure information through Sarah’s Law.

Anyone who looks out for the welfare of a child can make an enquiry. This can include parents, carers, guardians, extended family, friends and neighbours.