Police found that Viktor Smirnovs had a mobile phone hidden in his underwear that contained vile indecent images of children.
The 39-year-old was previously given a chance with a suspended sentence, but he did not heed the warning and is now incarcerated.
He was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court, where he was assisted by a Latvian interpreter, after admitting two counts each of breaching his sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with his sex offender register requirements.
The court heard that Smirnovs was previously handed a 15-month jail term in November 2023, but this was suspended for two years.
He admitted having a ‘dark side’ after being caught with hundreds of vile indecent pictures and videos, but then could not be found after returning to Latvia.
On his eventual return however, officers discovered that he had downloaded even more of the depraved material, with images and videos being in excess of 800.
He was also handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and told he must sign the sex offender register – with both imposed to allow police to keep tabs on him to ensure he was not offending again.
As such, the sex offender management unit from Cheshire Police called in unannounced at his Watkin Street home on September 9, explained Derek Jones, prosecuting.
Smirnovs allowed them entry and officers asked him if he had any further devices other than those that he had registers, or anything to tell them.
The defendant said that he hadn’t, but officers decided to conduct a search of the property, notably the bedroom.
At that point, officers noticed that Smirnovs appeared to be hiding something down his trousers, the court heard, with a mobile phone found to be in his underpants.
Viktor Smirnovs was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court
The Google Pixel phone and its hard drive had not been registered with the police before – as he is required to do by the terms of his sexual harm prevention order.
Searches of the phone revealed references to a bank account and a Gmail email account linked to the defendant.
These too had not been registered with the police, this time as required through the terms of his sex offender register requirements.
Smirnovs was interviewed by officers and answered ‘no comment’ to each question put to him.
The items seized from his address were sent for a forensic examination, with the phone revealing the presence of indecent images of children.
Of the 216 images and videos found, 29 were graded as category A – the most severe forms of child sexual abuse involving rape – while 28 were category B and 162 were category C.
The offences subsequently placed Smirnovs in breach of the suspended sentence he was given in November 2023.
Judge Anil Murray, the same judge who previously passed the suspended sentence, felt there was no reason to make it unjust for him to activate the suspended sentence, with extra time added for the new offences.
As a result, Smirnovs was sentenced to 20 months in prison, to be served immediately.
The sexual harm prevention order and his sex offender register requirements are to continue as existing from the previous sentence.
At his previous sentencing hearing, it was said that Smirnovs had ‘found it difficult facing to why he had been looking at these images, a more sinister side to his personality’.
“He clearly has a deep-rooted problem for which he needs some form of rehabilitation,” his barrister, Paul Wood, told the court.