One of Britain’s most notorious sex offenders was able to download hundreds of vile images showing children as young as four being raped while serving four life sentences.
Richard Baker – regarded as Britain’s worst serial rapist – accessed vile websites using a computer tablet smuggled into his cell and hidden in a wooden picture frame.
A court heard how the former nightclub DJ became obsessed with child rape and downloaded disgusting images and videos over five months in 2012.
Computer experts found a bookmark on his browser titled ‘best jailbait ever’ and that he had regularly visited illegal pornographic websites featuring pre-teens.
Baker, 51, was given four life sentences in 1999 for a series of rapes over the previous year which he committed having returned from working in Spain.
He had already been jailed six years for rape in 1987 and is suspected of raping more than 100 women, including scores of vulnerable teenagers in Spain.
On Thursday Baker was sentenced to an additional six years on after a jury found him guilty of nine offences of possessing and making indecent images of children.
Judge Francis, sitting at Aylesbury Crown Court, Bucks, told Baker he would be a “very old man” before he was released if it ever happened.
He added: “I believe you (Baker) will rape again if you are released.
” You are obsessed with sex and your interest now has moved to children.
“I do not think this man has learnt a single thing during his time in prison. You have five convictions for rape. The facts are horrible.
“You defiled a young girl of 15 and you were given a life sentence many years ago.
“You have told this jury that you suffer from many conditions both physical and mental and I think you are one of the most dangerous men I have ever had the displeasure of trying.
“You have started showing an interest in children of four or five years old. You’re a control freak.
“If ever there was a clear and present danger to women and female children this man represents it, it is as simple as that.
“The videos and pictures have a common theme. Many of them picture rape from behind either vaginally or anally. That is your interest in young children.”
The jury heard now Baker bought the tablet in February 2012, shortly after moving to Chadwick Lodge, medium secure mental health unit in Milton Keynes, Bucks, in November 2011.
He had spent the previous four years at Broadmoor Hospital, where he reportedly shared a wing with Levi Bellfield, Ian Huntley and Harold Shipman.
But after tricking psychiatrists into thinking he was getting better they downgraded him and sent him to a less secure institution.
He was even due for a parole hearing about his release in 2017.
But instead of getting better he set about fastidiously researching how to breach the less secure rules.
Before purchasing the tablet for £579.95, Baker spent hours researching the best model and altered a picture frame so it would hold the device during his woodwork classes.
He then hid the pin-secured 10 inch Galaxy Tab computer ingeniously in the frame with a false backing just big enough to hold it.
It was fitted with velcro strips.
Baker then began downloading and even at one point paid £44.95 for the disgusting images.
Staff at Chadwick Lodge were unaware of its existence until Baker tried to befriend a a therapist at Broadmoor using a suspicious Facebook account.
She had treated Baker during his four years at the hospital and the account was called Antony Rekab.
Rekab is Baker spelt backwards and Antony is his middle name.
After being aware of its existence staff used a scanner which showed an internet device was in his room.
Despite stripping the room back to the walls three times they were unable to find it.
On their first search on June 7, 2012 they found a charging cable, notebooks and diaries which made references to email addresses, passwords and a Samsung tablet.
In the notes there were references to the tablet as well as a PayPal account and credit card details.
After the third search on June 13, 2012 Baker confessed to Dr David Forshaw, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the hospital, to having the tablet.
But he refused to give staff the pin because he said it contained naked pictures of his girlfriend and revolutionary un-patented designs for an electric car worth millions.
Dr Forshaw said: “He had carefully researched in magazines which device would best suit his needs.
“It was delivered to his father’s address and passed on to Jenny and Wendy Phillips, a mother and daughter respectively.
“He dated the daughter at school and they were very close, like brother and sister.
“He acknowledged that the mother had often mentioned to him that he and her daughter would make a good couple.
“They maintained contact and they regularly sent him parcels (while in prison) of newspapers, magazines and sweets.
“One of them, after instructions over the telephone, contained the tablet wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in the bottom of the box covered in paper, newspaper and sweets.
“At medium secure hospitals staff are not permitted to censor patients’ post.
” They are required to open it in front of staff to ensure there are no enclosed forbidden items.
“If the tablet was enclosed at the bottom of the parcel staff simply would not have known.
“He said none of his peers knew about this device and his access to the internet was something he did all by his own.”
Prosecutor William Eaglestone told the court:” On that tablet in his possession were found indecent images of children downloaded from various websites.”
“There are around 30 bookmarks on that tablet along with website browsing history. One of the bookmarks was called ‘best jailbait ever’.
“Another one was called ‘illegal porn’.”
Baker later denied the women brought it in and said his woodwork teacher had smuggled it in for him in return for help selling items on eBay.
He also said that three other inmates had used the tablet and they must have downloaded the files or it was caused by viruses and pop ups.
Matthew Dudman was the digital evidence investigator from the Devon and Cornwall Police’s HiTech Crime Unit which examined the tablet.
He said: “If other people had used the device in the circumstances I would expect to find communication data, email chat, SMS messages of which I did not find any.
“It is a common defence in child abuse cases to claim images were caused by pop ups.
“In this case it is unlikely because we have images as email attachments, child abuse material in the DropBox.
“We have screenshots which are user generated.
“Within the downloads folder there were images which were user generated and we also have the bookmarks which are user generated.”
Baker was found guilty on nine charges of possessing or making indecent images of children between May 2, 2012 and June 12, 2012.
He was also found guilty of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence between February 8 and February 20 this year.
This related to Baker approaching fellow inmate Marcus Taylor at Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes, Bucks.
Baker learned that Mr Taylor was an IT expert and he agreed to pay him £1,000 in exchange for his help in deleting social media accounts and information off online cloud storage accounts where indecent images were.
He gave him a list which gave email addresses, passwords and which contained the words ‘delete everything!’.
He mistakenly thought this would get him off the hook because if the cloud storage was wiped there would be no evidence of the images or videos.
In actual fact he was only charged for possession and making images already on the tablet, which was nothing to do with any of his cloud storage accounts.
Mr Taylor said: “He was adamant that there was stuff on that device that was not on that list of evidence the police gave him.
“He said if you give me your Paypal account and help me I will send you some money.
“He told me to access his cloud storage accounts and remove all the information, all of the images, everything on there.
“Then (he told me) to fill the accounts with random music videos and delete the contents afterwards.
“After Richard had spoken to other people on the wing he was informed that should police gain access to the accounts he could face additional criminal charges.
“He had heard of various people on the wing, including myself, that if you delete files on cloud accounts and then write over them with other files it makes it harder to recover the original files.”
When questioned about the meeting Baker admitted to originally agreeing to pay Mr Taylor £1,000 for his help.
But he claimed Mr Taylor turned against him when he told him he was a Home Office spy.
He said: “I am a covert human intelligence source. I have been employed by the Home Office.
“For the security of it I have had to sign the Official Secrets Act. I told Marcus this and he didn’t like it.”
In fact Mr Taylor’s partner was pregnant and he was disgusted by his actions so he handed over the notes Baker gave him to police on his release on February 19.
This is the third time Baker has tried to influence a trial including in 1995 when he paid a prostitute he was accused of raping not to testify.
Baker was jailed for three years for the nine possession and making indecent image charges and three years for the
In 1999 he pleaded guilty to three rapes, one attempted rape and eight indecent assaults, one on an underage girl.
He was caught after his brother recognised him on a Crimewatch appeal and contacted police.
In 1995 he was jailed for 12 months for having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl and having sex at least five times.
The jury of five men and seven woman took just over four hours to unanimously find him guilty on all 10 counts.
Speaking after the verdict, investigating officer Det Con Darren White from Devon and Cornwall Police’s Child Exploitation Unit, said: “Richard Baker has been shown to still pose a significant risk to the public despite years of imprisonment and treated and described by the judge Sheridan as the most dangerous man to ever be tried before him.
“Whilst Mr Baker is currently serving a life sentence the verdict of the court today will mean he is unlikely to be released for the foreseeable future.”
As Baker was led away from the court he said: “I swear on my mum’s life I didn’t do it.”
