A former Sussex police sergeant Phillip Patterson has been incarcerated for a second time after confessing to engaging in sexual conduct with a minor and possessing obscene photos.
Phillip Patterson, 34, received a six-year prison sentence and will be designated a lifelong registered sex offender.
Sussex Police reported that Phillip Patterson’s most recent criminal activity was uncovered during a routine visit in 2018, in accordance with his conditions.
Judge David Rennie at Hove Crown Court declared Phillip Patterson to be “dangerous.”
Phillip Patterson, residing on Alexandra Road in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, had previously completed a prison sentence for the possession of over 50,000 obscene photos of minors.
He relinquished his post with the police force on the day of his arrest in 2010.
Detective Constable Vicky Jones stated: “During a routine visit in 2018 to Phillip Patterson, conducted as part of their responsibilities to supervise registered sex offenders in the community, colleagues discovered references to indecent material concerning children on his mobile phone.”
“The phone also held evidence of his online grooming and sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy, a relationship that the boy corroborated when we located him.”
In October 2016, he received an eight-week suspended sentence for a prior violation of his sex offender notification obligations. Subsequently, in September 2018, he was sentenced to 17 weeks of incarceration for another breach of the registration requirement, which was revealed during a police visit earlier that year.
During Phillip Patterson’s sentencing, Judge David Rennie stated: “Some individuals resort to the foolish rationale that ‘they’re merely images’.”
In each of these images, a child’s innocence is being obliterated. Secondly, you groomed the 13-year-old and enticed him into your nefarious realm of paedophilic exploitation. I unequivocally conclude that you pose a hazard.
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