A JURY at Gloucester Crown Court took just 48 minutes to convict a Cam man of seven charges of making, possessing and distributing indecent pictures of children while he was on parole from prison.

Sam Hewings, 27, of Hadley Road, Cam, will be sentenced next month by Judge Ian Lawrie QC, who told the jury of nine men and three women that Hewings had previously been convicted in 2007 of similar charges - and had also admitted attempting to abduct a girl in February 2017.

Because of his past offences and the new conviction the court would require reports about the level of danger he presents for the future, the judge said at a hearing on Tuesday (November 30).

“Hewings is still in abject denial about his possession of indecent images of children," said Judge Lawrie.

"This is of concern to the court. He does not seem to learn his lessons of the past. He was on parole when he embarked on this series of offending.

“I had intended sentencing Hewings immediately if he were to be found guilty by the jury.

"But having read various reports from his previous offending, I feel he falls into the category of being dangerous and he may need to receive an extended sentence.”

The court heard from Wendy Heaton, a recently retired police officer, who explained that Hewings was one of the sexual offenders assigned to her to monitor throughout the year.

She said that as he was subject to a sexual harm prevention order limiting his use of the internet she had made an unannounced visit to his home on January 7th 2020 and carried out an initial check of the devices he had in front of him.

A manual check of his browsing history showed a disturbing array of search terms

The devices were subsequently seized and a forensic examination of Hewings’ devices was carried out.

PC Robert Barfoot, who examined the devices, said that a number of images had been ‘orphaned’ but still contained their original name which suggested that they were indecent images.

He also explained that the Kik platform used by Hewings in distributing images did not keep any uploaded material on its servers.

Kannan Siva, defending, said Hewings maintained he was not responsible for these search terms and suggested that while he was in a hostel prior to being paroled from prison others had access to his devices.

Hewings denied under cross examination by prosecutor Ramin Pakrooh that he had made the searches.

Mr Pakrooh put it to him “You used these search terms and it is embarrassing to read them out in a courtroom such as this but these are the things you are interested in?”

Hewings replied: “No.”

“Nobody else had access to your tablet at home?” asked Mr Pakrooh - to which Hewings again said no.

Mr Pakrooh then asked: “You deleted the 29 items which included indecent images?” but Hewings denied he had.

“Are you interested in these type of images?” asked the prosecutor to which the defendant again replied 'no'.

“Did you install Kik app on your tablet computer?" 'No,' came the response. “Did someone else delete your search history?” to which Hewings replied 'yes'.

Asked if he had ever shared his passwords with anybody, Hewings replied that he hadn’t.

The prosecutor concluded: “There is absolutely no sign of anybody else signing into your accounts or using your tablet computer, yet you claim that somebody else deleted your browsing history and the offending indecent images.”

Hewings was found guilty of making indecent images between August 23, 2019 and January 8, 2020 namely five images of category A, three of category B and one image of category C; making two category A images between December 12 and 28, 2019; and that between December 13 and December 28 he incited a girl under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity and on January 7, 2020 he had deleted items of his browsing history contravening the terms of a sexual harm prevention order issued in November 2017.

Judge Lawrie remanded Hewings in custody until he is sentenced on January 19, 2022 and told him: “There appears to be no recognition of your past offending.

"You are a man still in denial and consequently I believe you pose a potential danger and I need to keep the public safe.”