Locations
Mersea Road, Colchester, Essex, CO2
Description
A convicted sex offender who showed "no understanding" or "remorse" for his crimes will not return to prison.
Jonathan Turkentine, 68, of Mersea Road, Colchester, had been remanded since February. He met with probation on Friday morning before appearing at Ipswich Crown Court, where he admitted possessing an indecent image of a girl and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
The SHPO was imposed in 2022, when Turkentine was jailed for possessing 251,386 indecent images and videos of children. He breached it again last year by deleting photos and messages.
In July last year, during a routine visit, an officer found the image on his phone and noted 33 deleted items from his Safari history.
Despite pleading guilty, Turkentine told officers he was "totally bamboozled" as to how the offending occurred and "completely in the dark."
His defence barrister claimed Turkentine was remorseful, but Recorder Richard Leiper KC found the probation report "troubling" and remained unconvinced.
"You have shown no understanding of your offending, no remorse and you have sought to minimise your responsibility for it," Recorder Leiper told him.
Due to the deleted history, the judge said there was no way to confirm what Turkentine had accessed but surmised the image was linked to his online activities.
Recorder Leiper imposed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
"I have, with great reluctance concluded there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation within the community," he said. "You should be extremely grateful for the submissions of your counsel."