A SOUTH Cumbrian man with an unhealthy interest in depraved sexual activity has been jailed for flouting a court order designed to curb his behaviour.

Jake Stewart, 27, who was prosecuted last year for having indecent child images and extreme pornography which included images of a corpse being sexually abused, pleaded guilty to three breaches of his sexual harm prevention order.

The offences came to light on December 7 last year when police visited the defendant at his home in Kendal and discovered incriminating evidence.

It included a mobile phone which Stewart had used to install and then delete a search engine, a TV streaming device, and phone software that allowed for “cloud storage” of digital material.

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All three activities constituted a breach of the sexual harm prevention order.

When he was quizzed by detectives, the defendant said he had used the search engine on a daily basis to search for pornography.

“He was searching a few times every day but there was no suggestion that he was searching for illegal material,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke.

The three offences were committed almost immediately after Stewart was given a suspended sentence.

The court heard that the defendant’s criminal history comprises nine previous offences, including the possession of child abuse images.

Charles Brown, mitigating, accepted that Stewart had arrived “almost” at the end of the road when it came to non-custodial sentences.

The barrister said the defendant had an interest in pornography and he downloaded the search engine in the hope of bypassing “parental controls” which applied to the wifi in the house where he was living.

Stewart now understood that he had to exercise the “utmost caution” when doing anything internet related in the future, added Mr Brown.

Judge Nicholas Barker accepted that the defendant may not have high intelligence, but this did not provide him with mitigation as he knew exactly what the position was when he was before magistrates in November last year for possessing indecent child images.

That same day he had gone home and accessed a streaming service, which he should have notified to the police within three days.

The judge told Stewart, of Burneside, that he believed the defendant knew the actions he took after his November court appearance had put him at risk of breaching his order.

The defendant's offending history had led to Probation staff concluding that the risk he poses could not be managed in the community. The judge activated the earlier suspended 12 month jail term and added six months for the order breaches.His total sentence, therefore, was 18 months in jail.