Raunds paedophile walks free after 'staggering' delay in taking him to court

James Fuller was arrested in 2019 after engaging in sick chat with an undercover police officer and his devices were seized for examination.

A forensic report was completed in 2022, detailing the indecent pictures and videos found, but he was not taken to court until 2024.

On Monday (July 8) the 39-year-old was spared from prison – with a judge saying it might have been different had he been sentenced four years ago.

Northampton Crown Court heard that Fuller was using a social media site under the name ‘Roland’ and ended up in communication with an undercover police officer.

He became involved in conversations about abusing children, with reference to raping and abusing a three-year-old child.

Prosecutor Richard Thatcher said: “There’s no evidence that this was anything other than fantasy.”

As a result of his online activity police attended Fuller’s address on October 7, 2019. They initially arrested a number of people who lived there before they were dearrested after Fuller indicated that he knew something about what police were talking about.

Fuller, of Station Road, was then taken to a police station and interviewed, giving no comment answers, as officers seized two laptops and a disk drive from his home.

Mr Thatcher said: “All three had illegal images of children on them.”

A forensic analysis report found more than 3,000 indecent images of children.

In total there were 140 category A files (of which 23 were videos), 198 category B files (of which 17 were videos) and 3,122 category C files (of which 52 were videos). Category A depicts the most depraved abuse.

The court heard the children in the images ranged from infants to young teenagers.

Mr Thatcher added that police also found web searches for terms such as ‘young teen pretty babes’ and ‘pre teen’ as well as evidence that 13,000 files had been deleted, although what they were was not clear. There were also encrypted files with titles suggestive of child abuse material.

Despite the completion of the report in August 2022, Fuller was not taken to court until February 2024. Mr Thatcher said he could see no reason for why it had taken so long and His Honour Judge David Herbert KC said the delay was ‘staggering’.

Fuller, who took a holdall into the dock in case he was jailed, went on to plead guilty to three counts of making – a legal term for actions such as viewing or downloading – indecent images of children.

Mitigating, Steven Williams said Fuller was of previous good character, had committed no further offences and that the five-year period since his arrest has been extremely difficult for him.

He said the first talk about child abuse came from the undercover officer and that Fuller had made a ‘poor and misguided’ attempt to make communications by copying and pasting material from the internet.

Mr Williams said: “This is a case where it could be suspended.”

Judge Herbert KC said the offence had been hanging over Fuller’s head for longer than it should have been and agreed to suspend the sentence – but that it might have been different if he was sentencing him four years ago.

He said: “Given the very significant delay and the age of these offences, and the fact you are of previous good character, it’s appropriate to suspend the sentence in your case.”

Fuller was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 21 months, with 30 rehabilitation activity days and 100 hours of unpaid work.

He will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and be on the sex offender register for 10 years.

Judge Herbert KC warned him that he’d be leaving via the prison door rather than the general public exit if he appeared before him in the dock again.

He added: “It’s people such as you who have a sexual interest in young children that then provide a ready market for these images.

"It’s people such as you who cause suffering to these children that they will have had to endure.”