A judge threw out a bid by the probation service to get rid of a requirement for a sex offender to complete a rehabilitation programme.

Harry Paris, 25, was ordered to do the 30 session course as part of a community order imposed last year after he admitted having 8,000 illegal cartoon sex abuse images of children.

On Monday, the probation service asked Judge Maria Lamb to remove the requirement he complete the sex offender rehabilitation programme – called Horizon – saying that because of difficulties running the course during the pandemic, Paris was yet to do the programme. He had been doing one-to-one work with his probation officer.

Judge Lamb refused the application to axe the requirement, telling the probation officer in court: “I’m not just going to accept this.

“This was part of His Honour Judge Daly’s sentence and no doubt instrumental in the reason why he gave the sentence and I’m certainly not prepared simply to remove it when you have, I think, a community order which doesn’t expire until March 12 next year.”

Last year, the court heard police were led to Paris, of Bourton Close, Witney, when US authorities reported concerns from a child on an online gaming platform.

As a result, police seized his computer. He had a single indecent image of a child in the most serious category, A, one image in category B and five in category C. Paris also had more than 8,000 prohibited cartoon images of children.

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