[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

You brits have a term "virtuous paedophile" for people with the desire, but possess convictions that prevent them from hurting a child.

[alancalverd]

Never heard the term, but who am I to judge? I only live here. Unless you mean "virtual", which is linguistically correct but legally meaningless as everyone is a virtual anything.

Probably not a good idea to use "convictions" in this context either. You can't get a conviction if you haven't done anything.

Anyway as I see it a sociopath is someone who has no subsequent remorse, so the two terms are not necessarily dependent.

[Bored chemist]

You brits have a term "virtuous paedophile"

Do we?

[Colin2B]

You brits have a term "virtuous paedophile" for people with the desire, but possess convictions that prevent them from hurting a child.

Never heard of it. Is this something else you’ve made up or are you thinking of some other country?

[evan_au]

You can't get a conviction if you haven't done anything.

Someone found with lots of child porn on their computer/browsing history shows that their drive for gratification exceeds:
- Respect/empathy for the children involved
- And their respect for the law/society as a whole

That is enough to indicate a dangerous individual; one that you would not describe as "virtuous".

[alancalverd]

Apparent lack of respect or empathy may increase a sentence or label somebody as a risk, but is not in general a crime in itself. Possession of offensive material, however, is an offence, and the Crown Prosecution Service  considers a range of pornography to be  sufficiently offensive to carry a high probability of conviction.