WESTCLIFF PAEDOPHILE MARK WOOLNOUGH BACK BEHIND BARS
A paedophile has been sent back to prison after he was caught with child sexual abuse images on his phone.Mark Woolnough, 61, of Seaforth Road in Westcliff, downloaded the indecent images shortly after being released from a prison sentence for attempting to groom and meet a child.
He is now back behind bars.
“You are the author of your own misfortune,” Judge Richard Conley told him at Basildon Crown Court on Wednesday (April 29).
“You were playing with fire and unfortunately, you have been burned.” Woolnough was convicted in January 2022 of making indecent images of children and attempting to meet a child under 16 following sexual grooming.
He was sentenced to 37 months in prison but released on licence in July 2023.
However, he was recalled to prison the following month after his outrageous behaviour led the probation service to deem his risk impossible to manage in the community.
In the few weeks he had been out of prison, he had sent “countless” indecent images to people online.
He was “extremely confrontational and difficult” with probation staff and had a “very concerning attitude” towards the rules of the bail hostel he was living in.
He thus had to serve 36 out of his 37 months.
Upon release, he began downloading chat apps including Telegram, Snapchat Zangi, and Omegle Video, and messaging females – although their identities and ages were not determined by Essex Police.
The downloading of the apps – and of a secretive web browser called Tor, which the judge called “the stock in trade of online sexual offenders” – was discovered during a police spot-check of his mobile phone in January.
His phone was seized and found to contain eight Category A indecent images (the worst level, depicting penetrative or sadistic abuse), three Category B (of which one was a video), and 42 Category C.
The collection depicted children aged 8-15.
He claimed he had been sent them unsolicited – but Judge Conley said it was his own fault for breaching the rules of his release by downloading the chat apps in the first place.
“Frankly, his attitude stinks, quite honestly,” said the judge.
“He’s in complete denial.
He’s not prepared to engage.
He got recalled last time.
He’s reoffended within weeks of his release this time.
Quite honestly, his goose is coocked, in my eyes.” Defence barrister Dale Beeson urged the judge to impose a suspended sentence, saying Woolnough was keen to engage in any courses that could help him address his offending behaviour.
But the judge said he had forfeited any right to such a lenient sentence by way of his “persistent” and “awful” conduct.
“Locking people up protects the public for a matter of months,” said the judge.
“Retraining them and reprogramming their mindset so that they don’t behave in this way in the future protects the public for years – and potentially for many years.
So I’m usually prepared to give people that opportunity where they deserve it.
But in your case, you simply don’t deserve it, because you have done nothing to help yourself at all.
Your attitude is appalling.
You have shown no insight at all.
You remain in abject denial about your attraction to young children and frankly, you are not worthy of this opportunity.
Resources are scarce… These places should be reserved for people who are prepared to try and do their best.
So regrettably, I see no alternative to an immediate term of imprisonment.
He sentenced Woolnough to two years in prison – 20 months for three breaches of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and four consecutive for the indecent images offences.
He also ordered Woolnough’s Motorola phone be destroyed.
“No reason why you should get that back,” he said.
“Don’t make the same mistake again.
That’s all I can say.”
