‘Arrogant’ sex offender jailed over data-erasing software
AN “ARROGANT” sex offender who believes “everybody is wrong and he is right” has been jailed for installing data-erasing software on his laptop computer.
Dean Goodall has been banned from owning and using such software after being convicted of possessing indecent images of girls in 2019.
Swansea Crown Court heard that due to the efficiency of the software the defendant used, it was not possible to tell what files the defendant got rid of.
Craig Jones, prosecuting, told the court that on September 30 last year police officers carried out a visit at Goodall’s home address, and when they examined his Lenovo Thinkpad laptop found an icon on the desktop for a file wiping application. As a result of the discovery, the police seized the device.
Two days later 56-year-old Goodall rang the police asking for his laptop back but was told it was going to be subjected to a full forensic analysis. The defendant responded by telling the police he was unfamiliar with the terms of the sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), and had never been given a copy of it.
A detailed examination of the Lenovo found software for cleaning the machine’s internet history and cache, and a “shredder” for destroying files on the hard drive.
The court heard the shredder had been used 25 times in two months, and due to the efficiency of the software it was not possible to tell what data had been removed.
The prosecutor said officers returned to Goodall’s address in March this year to arrest him, and during the visit the defendant’s partner gave police a folded-up copy of the SHPO which had been in a drawer of paperwork.
Dean Goodall, of Priory Street, Carmarthen, had previously pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
The SHPO had been imposed following his guilty plea to possession of indecent images at Gloucester Magistrates’ Court in 2019, an offence committed in Dursley.
James Hartson, for Goodall, said the defendant was guilty of a “technical breach” of the order, and noted that there were still some 49,000 files on the laptop which had not been wiped and that the prosecution was unable to say whether using the cleaning software had led to the elimination of any incriminating data.
The barrister added that it was “disappointing” that the pre-sentence report did not put forward any alternative to immediate custody.
Judge Geraint Walters said in the pre-sentence report Goodall sought to minimise the seriousness of his behaviour, and was described as showing a “disrespectful” and “aggressive” attitude towards probation staff.
He called Goodall’s assertion that he did not derive any sexual gratification from the indecent images he had downloaded “nonsense”.
The judge told the defendant: “The view you seem to take is everybody else is wrong and you are right. It seems to me you are basically an arrogant man who feels entitled.”
With a 25% discount for his guilty plea to breaching the SHPO Goodall was sentenced to six months in prison; the judge also activated three months of the original suspended sentence to run concurrently making an overall sentence of six months.
He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Dyfed-powys Police does not release custody photographs for defendants sentenced to less than 12 months custody.