A SEX offender who boasted of abusing children as he distributed indecent images of youngsters has been jailed for three years and eight months.

Some of the explicit images found on two computers and USB sticks at John Kavanagh Wymark Hoar’s home included abuse of children as young as five and some showed children in pain or distress, said Rob Galley, prosecuting.

Hoar started his crimes about the time he finished his punishment for other crimes involving similar illegal pictures, and used Yahoo Messenger Chat and Skype Chat facilities to send other people his illegal pictures, including some of the most explicit and extreme kind.

As he did so, he told the recipients he himself had sexually abused young children.

“Some of it may have been bravado, but it is a concerning aspect of the case,” said Mr Galley.

York Press:

Hoar, 69, now of Whitwell-on-the-Hill, and formerly of Victoria Road, Malton, pleaded guilty to two offences of distributing indecent images of children, three of possessing indecent images, one of breaching a sexual offences prevention order by having software designed to remove evidence of his crimes, one of having extreme pornography and one of having prohibited images of children.

Hoar distributed 143 pictures, including 14 of the most serious abuse, and had 1494 illegal pictures and videos. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.

Representing himself, he said he had believed the software was anti-viral and didn’t realise that it could hide what he was doing.

He was ashamed of his actions and said his four months on remand awaiting sentence had been so unpleasant he would try to avoid going back to jail on his release. He told police he had never abused children himself.

Mr Galley said Hoar was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years in September 2011 for 29 offences of possessing illegal images.

The punishment included a sex offender treatment programme which he completed. He was also made subject to a sexual offences prevention order.