R v Jack Watkin

Facts

The applicant, Jack Watkin, was prosecuted in the Crown Court at Chester on two distinct sets of offending. He first came to police attention over a fraud: passing himself off as a person of substantial means, he persuaded victims — among them a close friend and his own father — to lend him money said to be for the purchase of valuable designer handbags to which he claimed special access, and used the money instead to fund an extravagant lifestyle. The total obtained from all the victims was just under £200,000. While examining his phone in the fraud investigation, the police found that he had downloaded indecent images of children, and further enquiries showed he had downloaded more images on a device acquired later. The images totalled 637, of which 274 were category A, the most serious kind; 68 of those 274 were videos rather than stills. After his initial arrest and while on bail he accessed another phone, on which he continued to download indecent images. On 15 April 2025 he was convicted after trial of a number of offences arising from the possession of indecent images, and on 24 June 2025, the second day of the trial, he pleaded guilty to six offences of fraud. His Honour Judge Simon Berkson sentenced him to four years and six months' imprisonment for the fraud offences and a consecutive term of 18 months for the indecent image offences. The single judge refused leave to appeal against sentence, and the application was renewed.