Quickly exit this site by pressing the Escape key Leave this site
We use some essential cookies to make our website work. We’d like to set additional cookies so we can remember your preferences and understand how you use our site.
You can manage your preferences and cookie settings at any time by clicking on “Customise Cookies” below. For more information on how we use cookies, please see our Cookies notice.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Sorry, there was a technical problem. Please try again.
This site is a beta, which means it's a work in progress and we'll be adding more to it over the next few weeks. Your feedback helps us make things better, so please let us know what you think.
The young detective purchased an old mobile phone from a car boot sale last summer whilst pursuing his interest in technology and fixing broken phones.
After turning the phone on, he managed to gain access after discovering the passcode was saved as the lock screen image.
It was then that he was automatically subjected to a series of indecent images that appeared unprompted as a slideshow, alongside text notes about child abuse.
Once the slideshow had finished, a sinister message appeared on the screen referring to hopes that a young child would find the phone followed by more disturbing images and references about the phone’s previous owner.
The teen, who was understandably horrified by what he had seen, attended one of our police stations along with his mother to hand in the phone and provide officers with details about what he had discovered.
We carried out an extensive investigation and were able to identify the owner of the phone as 51-year-old registered sex offender Karl Fox of Burton Stone Lane in York.
Thanks to evidence found on the phone we were able to prove that Fox had breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) fifteen times. The SHPO had been handed to him in 2004 following offences of outraging public decency.
We also uncovered further pseudo indecent images of children and graphic self-written fantasies about child sexual abuse on a number of other phones that were found at his home address, one of them which is pictured here.
Fox was arrested and remanded in custody before he appeared at York Crown Court at the end of last month charged with:
On Friday 23 February he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison, handed an indefinite registered sexual offender (RSO) status and given a SHPO preventing him from-
Speaking about the quick-thinking actions of the teen, Detective Constable Charlotte White who led the investigation said:
“It was Fox’s goal for a child to find the phone and his actions meant that a 15-year-old boy was subjected to viewing the horrific and revolting contents within it.
“But without the teen recognising the seriousness of what he had found, and having the courage to report it to us, we would not have known that Fox was brazenly breaching his conditions.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him as his quick-thinking actions meant we were able to launch a full investigation leading to Fox’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment.”