Phillip Dutfield: Kiddie Porn Collecting Grandpa Dodges Jail Over Wi-Fi Access Dispute — Here’s Why

Phillip Dutfield, a 61-year-old grandfather and former British Army officer, has been busted not once, not twice, but three times for accessing and downloading images of extreme child pornography, child abuse, and people having sexual relations with animals. The degenerate grandpa has been thrown in the slammer twice already, for a total of 22 months.

But this time, even though he’s on his third strike — and went out of his way to access the depraved material on a university computer after a court banned him from owning one of his own — Dutfield may dodge prison completely this time.

Why? Because prisons don’t offer access to the most important thing he’s been banned from using anyway — Wi-Fi internet.

In this case, Dutfield needs Wi-Fi not to download more sickening kiddie porn, but to stay alive — at least, that’s what he and his lawyers claim. The former military man now wears a pacemaker, which requires the wireless internet access so his doctors are able to monitor the device, which is the only thing that keeps his faulty heart beating.

“One can imagine all sorts of impediments to it functioning in a custodial setting,” said Dutfield’s lawyer, Tom Dunn, during a Monday county hearing. “No doubt, there are safeguards in place to prevent that happening for many reasons. He may be put at risk in a custodial setting.”

The hearing was supposed to be the time and place where a judge pronounced the latest sentence for the inveterate pervert, but Judge Jeremy Carey of Maidstone Crown Court in the southeast England county of Kent agreed to think about what to do before sending Phillip Dutfield to prison — or not.

“It is a unique case in my experience. It may well become commonplace,” said Carey, responding to Dutfield’s request to delay the sentencing. “I think I must allow this.”

Dutfield, who worked at a special facility for individuals with learning disabilities when his thirst for demented child pornography first got him arrested in 2004, declared that he enjoyed viewing the sickening images because, “I have a morbid interest in my world.”

In addition to accessing the internet at the University of Kent, Dutfield also admitted having unsupervised contact with a minor girl, another violation of a court order against him. He was also accused of having prohibited contact with an underage boy, but Dutfield denied that charge.

The Dutfield case in the United Kingdom comes amidst a scandal in the United States, in which popular Subway sandwich restaurant pitchman Jared Fogle has become the subject of a child pornography investigation.

The judge set a new date for sentencing on August 2, by which time he hopes to have more info from doctors treating Phillip Dutfield as to whether the convicted child porn addict needs Wi-Fi in prison.

[Image: Maidstone Crown Court]