A CONVICTED Carlisle sex offender who has previously been prosecuted for possessing child abuse images is to be sentenced by a judge at the city's  crown court.

Magistrates heard that Jasmine Challands, 46, who was originally prosecuted under the name Peter James Challands, is a 'tortured' individual who is now facing a decade-long journey as she begins the process of transitioning to become a woman.

In an interview with police, the defendant appeared to blame her former self for the offending.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate Magistrates Court, Challands admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order by secretly possessing two mass-storage USB devices which were hidden in a box of Lego.

Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said that the defendant had been a registered sex offender since 2019, having been prosecuted for possessing indecent child images.

It was a during a routine 'compliance' check by police officers that the current offences came to light on March 16, said the prosecutor.

Challands’ sexual harm prevention order included an obligation to inform police about any digital storage devices she may possess.

She was also under an obligation to provide them for inspection when police requested this. But she failed to do this, said Miss Fee.

“The two USB devices were recovered from a Lego box, in a large Lego wheel tyre, deliberately hidden so that they were difficult to find,” explained the prosecutor.

When interviewed by police officers, the defendant confirmed that she understood the sexual harm prevention order and the various obligations it placed on her.

When questioned further, she said that the USB devices belonged to Peter and that she was called Jasmine.

"Peter was responsible for them", she told the police officers.

She said that Peter had 'bad' things on the USB devices which reflected certain sexual fantasies involving children. The prosecutor said the investigation of what was on the USB devices would take a number of weeks for the police to complete.

Jeff Smith, defending, told magistrates that Challands no longer wanted to be a man and she was now seeking assistance so that she could transition to become a woman.

“She tells me this will take 10 to 11 years," said the lawyer. "So she is tortured, regarded by no-one, and respected by no-one. She's said to me in the cells that she doesn’t know who she is, what she is, where she’s going, or where she belongs.”

The lawyer said Challands had previously complied well with a community order in that last two years.

Magistrates said the defendant, of Warwick Road, Carlisle, should be sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court.

They noted the seriousness of the offence and that it was the third time she had breached a court order and that she had tried to mislead the police.

They remanded Challands in custody until April 12 when the defendant will be produced at the crown court for sentence.