Charity shop worker who is transitioning to become a woman whose New Year’s resolution was to have sex with a child under 10 and had 16,000 child abuse images is jailed

A charity shop worker who is on her way to becoming a woman has been jailed for two years for possessing thousands of ‘disgusting’ images of child abuse.

Samantha Norris, 56, from Ringwood, Hampshire, was previously acquitted by a jury of exposing ‘her penis’ to two 11-year-old girls following a trial at Southampton Court in January.

But yesterday Norris pleaded guilty to separate charges of possession 16,000 images of children – including around 2,000 still images and 121 live images of category A seriousness – as well as an extremely pornographic image involving an animal.

The images included children as young as three, while others showed youngsters as young as six in ‘distress and pain’, the court heard.

Judge Rowland stated that Norris had written notes about sexual fantasies about a young child, as well as a ‘New Year’s resolution to have sex with a girl under 10’.

Norris pleaded guilty at Southampton Crown Court to charges of possessing 16,000 images of children – including around 2,000 still images and 121 moving images of Category A seriousness

He told the defendant: ‘This is about you Samantha Norris and not about the victims.

‘You don’t accept that they are victims, you have distorted views and you don’t feel that your offenses should be treated as serious – how would a right-minded person think about that?

‘Your views are alarming and complex – you pose a high risk of harm to children.’

The defendant entered the plea after being cleared by a jury of other charges of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and of indecent exposure.

In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Nicholas Rowland made Norris subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.

He added: ‘It’s quite obvious to me that you decided not to enter guilty pleas (earlier) when those pleas would have gone before the jury in the other cases.’

During the trial on the charges of exposure and sexual activity, of which Norris was acquitted, the prosecution had claimed that the defendant had ‘deliberately exposed his penis’ to two youths through the window of her flat.

But Norris, who worked in a Sue Ryder charity shop, described himself as a naturist who was ‘usually naked’ at home.

Norris insisted that the children could only have seen any nudity if they had been ‘spying’.

Norris also complained of receiving abuse from youths in the town and accused the girls of becoming ‘taunting’.