Repeat Offender Handed Suspended Sentence Over Foot Fetish Files

​A serial offender caught with a digital archive containing more than 10,000 unauthorized images and hundreds of videos focused primarily on women’s and girls’ feet has been warned he is in the “last chance saloon”.

​Samuel Tobin, 31, of Westcliff, Essex, appeared at Basildon Crown Court after repeatedly violating a court order explicitly prohibiting him from photographing people’s feet without their consent.

​The court was told that Essex Police discovered the vast cache of media during a routine compliance check at Tobin’s home in June. When officers entered his bedroom, Tobin attempted to conceal the contents of his smartphone by rapidly deleting files. While his main gallery appeared empty, forensic recovery revealed approximately 10,000 images and 444 videos hidden in the device’s deleted folder.

​Prosecutor Hollie Davies outlined that the imagery heavily featured female feet captured from varied angles, with a significant proportion depicting children and teenagers in school uniform. Investigators also seized a USB stick containing categorized folders labelled by footwear types such as “flats,” “loafers,” and “sandals,” alongside a folder explicitly named “schoolgirls”. Court documents revealed that another 28 seized USB sticks remain pending forensic assessment.

​While none of the recovered photographs were legally classified as indecent, they were taken covertly for sexual gratification. One specific file depicting a woman sunbathing in her private back garden was formally prosecuted as voyeurism, while the remaining files constituted multiple breaches of Tobin’s sexual risk order.

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​Tobin was originally subjected to a sexual risk order in 2021 to manage a diagnosed compulsive preoccupation with feet and footwear. Despite this legal restriction, he breached the directive on three separate occasions—in 2023, 2025, and 2026—having previously received community penalties for the initial violations.

​Mitigating on behalf of the defendant, defense barrister Angelina Nurse pointed to diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and an ongoing evaluation for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), arguing that a severe compulsion fueled the pattern of behavior.

​Recorder Peter Clark sentenced Tobin to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, noting that a realistic prospect of rehabilitation remained. The sentence includes an order to complete 120 hours of unpaid work, a specialized “building better choices” program, and up to 30 rehabilitation activity days. Additionally, a ten-year sexual harm prevention order was enacted, placing Tobin on the sex offenders register for the decade-long duration.