Registered sex offender sent back to prison

A 63-year-old registered sex offender has been sent back to prison after he was found in possession of indecent images of children.

Chris Wells, previously of Northampton, was convicted in 2007, 2014 and 2021 for similar offences. On one occasion,  a warrant executed by Northamptonshire Police at his home address resulted in officers finding in excess of 175,000 images on devices seized from his property. He was convicted as a result and sent to prison.

His most recent offending happened this August and October when he was visited by officers from the Force’s MOSOVO (Management of Sexual and Violent Offenders) Team and devices seized from him were found to contain 1,957 indecent images of children, 44 of which were Category A images - the most serious.

Wells was arrested and charged with five counts of possessing indecent images of children and one count of breaching his sexual harm prevention order, all of which he pleaded guilty to at Northampton Crown Court in October.

Last week (December 13), he returned to the same court where he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Wells’ Offender Manager, Ruth Moreton said: “Chris Wells is a prolific sex offender who has acted with impunity time and time again with regards to downloading indecent images of children.

“It is our regular unannounced visits that have uncovered his offending so I am pleased that he has been sent back to prison.

“I hope that anyone reading this who downloads similar images takes a lesson from this conviction. We will uncover your offending and you will be sent to prison.

“These images wouldn’t exist if people like Chris Wells didn’t download them and the suffering that takes place in order to create them cannot be measured.”

MOSOVO Detective Sergeant Tom Curlett-New added: “The officers in my team see the day-to-day devastation this type of crime causes and that is why we are so determined to work as hard as possible to put the people who look at these images behind bars.”