November 2012

Judge lifts order banning pervert from the internet claiming it is ‘unreasonable to stop anyone accessing it at home’

A perverted snooper who used a secret camera to video a 14-year old girl in the shower and was banned from using the internet will now be allowed to go online after a judge ruled the ban ‘unreasonable’.

Phillip Michael Jackson, 55, was arrested after the suspicious youngster spotted a flashing light in a shampoo bottle and found a mobile phone behind a hole.

The police investigation found hundreds of sex images, featuring animals and children as young as four, stored on his computer.

Jackson, of Dartford in Kent, was sentenced to a community order with three years supervision at Woolwich Crown Court in June this year.

He was also hit with a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO), banning him from owning a computer, using a camera in public, coming into contact with children at work and allowing the police to raid his home at any time.

But after he complained that he was being cut off from the world, appeal court judges ruled it is ‘unreasonable nowadays to ban anyone from accessing the internet in their home’.

Mr Justice Collins and Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, overturned the strict SOPO, replacing it with an order that he simply make his internet history available for viewing by the police.

His lawyers argued that the order imposed by the Crown Court judge – which he said should last until the day Jackson died – was unnecessary and disproportionate.

Mr Justice Collins told the court: ‘The judge imposing the SOPO said, “I anticipate that you will die subject to this order – that is my wish anyway.” They were not appropriate remarks to have made.’

Also criticising the ‘lurid language’ used by the judge, he concluded that the SOPO imposed on Jackson was ‘entirely excessive’.

‘Nowadays it is entirely unreasonable to ban anybody from accessing the internet in their home,’ the appeal judge concluded.

August 2012

‘Depraved’ landlord Phillip Jackson filmed girl in the shower

A FATHER-OF-THREE filmed the 14-year-old daughter of his lodger on a hidden camera as she showered.

Fifty-four-year-old Phillip Jackson, from Crayford, doctored a shower gel bottle and concealed his mobile phone inside it to take intimate videos of the girl.

Police also found hundreds of disgusting images featuring animals and children as young as four.

Being sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday, Judge Michael Topolski told Jackson: “You reached down into a dark dungeon of depravity.”

On January 3, the daughter of Jackson’s lodger noticed a shower gel bottle with a hole in it and a flashing light.

Gordon Carse, prosecuting, said: “She came into the living room and asked if anyone needed to use the toilet before she went for a shower.

“Mr Jackson said he did. In effect it was a ruse.”

It was at this stage Jackson turned on the camera in the bathroom.

Mr Carse added: “She took out the mobile phone and saw it was recording images of her.

“She immediately stopped it and deleted it.”

Police searched Jackson’s house, uncovering three CDs, a hard drive, a laptop and a mobile phone containing more than 2,000 indecent images of children ranging up to the most serious level five.

Judge Topolski said: “I have seen this material and some of them are of very young children being compelled to do very grotesque things and having grotesque things done to them.”

There were also 77 images and five videos of extreme animal pornography.

Jackson was charged with three counts of voyeurism, one count of making indecent images of children and 11 counts of possessing indecent images of children.

He was also charged with three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images involving animals and one count of distributing indecent images of children.

He pleaded guilty to all charges.

James Hasslacher, mitigating, said Jackson was at a low risk of re-offending.

He said: “How a man of exemplary character can descend into the spiral of depravity is a shock even to him.

“He can’t understand it, he found himself almost addicted. He could not stop himself.”

Mr Hasslacher said Jackson had already served seven months in custody, had received counselling and was disgusted at what he has done.

Jackson was sentenced to a three-year community order with supervision and will need to go on a programme for sex offenders.

A sexual offences prevention order was also imposed, banning him from using the internet unless under his employer’s supervision, owning a computer, working with under-16s, possessing a camera in public and from having under-18s at his house.

Judge Topolski said: “I am as confident as I can be the action I am going to take will better protect the victims of this case and other children from your depraved gaze.”