Paedophile, 68, jailed over indecent images on phone

Leeds Crown Court heard paedophile Dennis Cocking has a long record of sexual offences and on his last release from prison in December 2010 was banned from having any device capable of accessing the internet without approval of his probation officer.

However, after a housing support officer noted he had a phone last year, police saw him and he produced the Samsung phone and four memory cards which he said had indecent images of boys on them.

Examination revealed that the images included 1,176 at level one and 116 at level four, on a scale of seriousness up to five.

The court heard Cocking, 68, whose address given in court was Armley Prison, was first sentenced for indecent assault in 1970 and again in 1977, 1978, 1983, 1984 and for more serious offences in 1988. In 2003 he was jailed for possessing and distributing images.

Under a sexual offences prevention order he must not enter parks alone or have unsupervised contact with children under 16.