A child sex offender re-offended just days after being released from prison on two separate occasions, a court has heard. Ian Mitchell has a history of sexual offending and breaching court orders designed to control his behaviour stretching back more than a quarter of a century. He has been given extended sentences as a dangerous offender on multiple occasions.
Offending after July release
The 64-year-old's barrister told Swansea Crown Court that his client had only experienced three Christmases in the community in the last 20 years and was a "demoralised person". He said his client had indicated that he wanted help to address his offending, though he said it was accepted "his history suggests that might not be the case".
Sam Jenkins, prosecuting, told the court that the first piece of offending happened in July last year after the defendant was released from a two-year prison sentence imposed for a previous breach of a sexual harm prevention order. He said Mitchell was released on July 8 and housed at an "approved address" in Swansea but just ten days later was recalled back to prison after concerns were raised that he was accessing child pornography.
A search of the defendant's room in the hostel uncovered a phone which he had not told the police about - on the device officers found more than 900 pictures and videos of children as young as one year old being sexually abused, including 191 Category A images showing the most extreme kinds of abuse and rape. Also on the phone were computer generated prohibited images of children.
Second release and further breach
The court heard that Mitchell was released again on July 6 this year and, as required, gave his offender manager details of his phone - a Motorola Moto - and his email address. The prosecutor said 11 days after his release, the defendant was asked to produce his phone for examination - when the device was checked officers found emails which showed Mitchell had signed up to TikTok and had registered with a virtual private network or VPN which allows for an encrypted connection to the internet.
The defendant told officers he had "downloaded stuff" when "p*ssed" but subsequently answered "no comment" to all questions asked in interview.
Long history of offending
Ian Spencer Mitchell, of King Edward Road, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of breach of a sexual harm prevention order, making - that is possessing - incident images of categories A, B and C, and possession of prohibited images when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 46 previous convictions for 134 offences.
The court heard his sexual offending began in 1999 when he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for gross indecency with a child. That offence had seen him sexually assaulting a girl and showing her a pornographic film while masturbating.
In 2005 Mitchell was given an extended sentence as a dangerous offender for making indecent photographs of a child, and in 2011 was jailed again and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for making and possessing indecent images. The following year the defendant was sentenced to three years in prison for once again making and possessing indecent images.
Mitchell's offending continued upon his release from custody, and in 2015 he was sentenced to 40 months in prison for engaging in online chats about sexual abuse and for distributing indecent images and videos including of Category A. While serving that sentence at HMP Channings Wood in Devon the defendant was found with a secret stash of newspaper cuttings of pictures of young girls in swimming costumes or in nativity plays in his cell – some of which he had stuck onto pictures of naked woman in a pornographic magazine. He also had a collection of newspaper clippings of stories about notorious child murder cases. For that offending Mitchell was given a second extended sentence in 2017 comprising 12 months in prison followed by a three-year licence period.
The following year the defendant was given another extended sentence as a dangerous offender after police in Swansea found more than 4,000 indecent and prohibited pictures on his phone and in his cloud storage account, and found he had engaged in sexualised conversations on WhatsApp in which he pretended to be a pre-pubescent girl. For making, possessing, and distributing indecent images and breaching a SHPO the defendant was sentenced to two years in prison with an extended three-year licence period.
The defendant breached the SHPO again in 2021 after buying an internet-enabled video games console. Mitchell initially lied to police claiming another resident of the hostel where he was living had given him the device but checks showed he had in fact purchased it from a Swansea city centre shop.
Sentencing
In November 2023 the defendant was sentenced to 10 months in prison for breaching a sexual harm prevention order by secretly joining Facebook. On that occasion the judge noted Mitchell was "unable to abide by court orders".
Hilary Roberts, for Mitchell, said it was accepted that there could be no alternative to immediate custody for the defendant. He said his client was a "demoralised person" who had only spent three Christmases at liberty in the last 20 years and said prison was "wearing him down". The barrister said Mitchell had recognised that "if nothing else, his behaviour is very damaging to himself" and said his client had indicated that he wanted help, though he said it was accepted "His history suggests that might not be the case".
Recorder Ben Blakemore said he was satisfied that Mitchell knew the conditions of the sexual harm prevention order, and said on two occasions the defendant had breached that order shortly after being released from prison. With discounts for his guilty pleas Mitchell was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. He will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
