A man who has retained an interest in viewing child sexual abuse images, despite having served a prison sentence in recent years for such an offence, is back behind bars again.

Mark Flack, 57, was sentenced to a 21-month term of imprisonment at Ipswich Crown Court, in 2015, over the possession of 58,493 indecent images, found by police on various devices in his ownership at his former home in the Suffolk village of Red Lodge, in October 2014.

As part of that sentence, he was made the subject of a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and notification requirements as a sex offender.

But he was found to have breached those orders when police paid an unannounced monitoring visit to his recent home address, in Horden, County Durham, on October 25, last year.

Read more: Sex offender found with indecent images of children facing jail again

Durham Crown Court heard that officers seized devices he had previously failed to declare to his monitoring officer, containing 260 more indecent images, created between November 2016 and the day of the police visit.

Jonathan Harley, prosecuting, said it was discovered Flack used an alias name to access a site and was in possession of a special browser to hide or delete evidence of his internet searches, plus an app to enable him to chat online, all breahing the terms of the 2015 court orders.

As a result of the finds from the computer equipment recovered in October, police went back to Flack's home on December 14 and seized two tablet devices and two external hard disc drives, none of which were disclosed to the officers two months earlier.

While Flack was appearing at the magistrates’ court the following day, over charges arising from the October raid, the devices seized in December were sent for expert analysis.

Mr Harley said the results of examination of just one of those devices revealed the presence of more than 15,000 indecent images, featuring children as young as four being abused.

He described Flack’s breaches of court orders as “deliberate” and said he was considered to pose a “considerable” risk of harm as he could engage in sexual conversation with children on devices through the app he had installed.

The 57-year-old defendant, of Fifth Street, Horden, who has been on remand in Durham Prison since hisd arrest in December, admitted three counts of making indecent images of a child, plus six breaches of the court orders made at the 2015 case.

Read more: Jail for Red Lodge man with nearly 60,000 indecent images of children

Robert Mochrie, in mitigation for Flack, said the hard drive recovered by police in December contained some of the images for which the defendant was sentenced in 2015.

“Clearly this is a man who, to a degree, has gone on to commit further offences since serving his last sentence.

“He asserts many of the images were created before the original term of imprisonment, but there are further images on the indictment which were created after his release from custody.

“By way of explanation, he received an email from someone he used to have an internet association with when he says he had an interest in this type of material.

“He ought not to have opened it, but he did and downloaded the images.”

Judge Jo Kidd told Flack although it was not clear when some of the images were created, it was evident he took the hard drive with him to the address he has been living.

“It seems to me you deliberately hid that device from the eyes of the police when they attended your home, in October.

“The evidence is, therefore, compelling that you have continued to have a sexual interest in viewing images of children which is persistent, beyond your conviction of 2015 and your sentence of imprisonment.

“The breaches show a blatant disregard for orders that are there to protect the public.”

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               Software allowed for distribution of indecent images of children by Stanley man

               County Durham man spared jail over indecent images of children

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She imposed a total prison sentence of 30-months, including 12 months for the breaches.

Judge Kidd also made Flack subject of continued notification requirements as a sex offender and to the terms of the SHPO, both, now, for an indefinite period.

She also ordered forfeiture and destruction of the recently seized devices.