Robert Hicks, a 72-year-old pensioner with more than 100 sex offences on his record, has been jailed for four years after police caught him watching pornography at a library and found indecent images of children on his laptop.
Serial Offender's Latest Conviction
Hicks, who has spent the past two decades searching for indecent images of children or breaching court orders, was made subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order in October 2015. As part of the order, he had an offender manager who visited his home.
In July 2025, the offender manager visited Hicks' then-home in Radnor Road, Oldbury, after receiving information that he had watched pornography on a laptop at a local library. The laptop had not been registered with the police as required by the court order, prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard told Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Discovery of Indecent Images
When asked about other devices, Hicks denied having any. However, police searched his home—a house in multiple occupation—and found a laptop under a mattress in a bedroom. On it were more than 890 accessible and 630 inaccessible indecent images of children, with some victims as young as two. Orchard said there were 'many more images but the threshold had been reached so no further images were graded.'
An investigation revealed the images were accessed between November 21, 2017, and July 23, 2025. Hicks' search history showed he had been 'deliberately' searching for 'indecent images of young females.' In his police interview, he gave a prepared statement denying the library incident.
Extensive Criminal Record
The court heard Hicks has 13 convictions for 104 offences committed between 2003 and 2025, all of the same nature: making indecent images of children or breaching sexual harm prevention orders. Orchard noted he has had many periods of imprisonment, including extended sentences, throughout his record.
Defending, Glenn Cook said: 'The defendant will have to engage and utilise his time in custody to try to do something that addresses his clear underlying history, to try to reduce the level of risk when he is ultimately released from prison.'
Sentencing Remarks
Hicks, of no fixed abode, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one count of breach of a sexual harm prevention order. Sentencing, Recorder David Lock KC said: 'You are a persistent criminal in downloading and viewing images of the utmost seriousness of the abuse of children. You have been before this court on a number of previous occasions. You have been sent to prison but it does not seem to make the slightest difference to you because you are still driven to commit these offences.'
He added: 'Children are only abused because there are people like you who want to consume the images. So, you are directly responsible for the harm which these children suffer as a result of your twisted desire to be involved in viewing these images.'
Hicks, appearing via video link from HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire, was jailed for four years on Thursday, July 2. Recorder Lock warned: 'When you are released, it will be a matter for you to decide whether you wish to carry on viewing indecent images of children. If you do, you will be caught and the sentence will be even longer.'
