SEAHAM SEX OFFENDER JAILED FOR BREACHING COURT ORDER
A sex offender made subject of restrictions on his internet use was “testing the water” by using a cloud storage appliance little more than a month later, a court heard.Sean Whitfield was said to have only used the app for gaming purposes, but Durham Crown Court was told he would not have needed it for such legitimate activities.
Whitfield, 37, of Stewart Street East, in Seaham, was before the court for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), plus possession of both a prohibited image of a child and two indecent images of a child, offences he admitted recently before magistrates.
Prosecutor Caroline McGurk told the sentencing hearing that Whitfield was made subject of the SHPO in July last year, when he received a suspended prison sentence for making indecent images of children.
She said within a few weeks it was discovered he had accessed the cloud storage app, which he was not permitted to do under the terms of the SHPO.
Miss McGurk described it as a “deliberate offence”, aggravated by having taken place only weeks after the SHPO was put in place.
“Perhaps it’s the risk that if he continues to do this and isn’t stopped, he could go on to access more indecent images of children.
We would say in relation to use of this technology, he’s testing the water.” She said this was “a reasonable inference” that could be made by the prosecution.
Judge Richard Clews said: “The prosecution’s case is that he had an ulterior motive.” Addressing Whitfield, Judge Clews told him: “You have previous convictions, not that many, but your conviction last year in respect of three offences of making indecent images of children is highly significant.
“What is clear is that within a short time you ignored the suspended sentence order and the SHPO, by continuing to commit offences.
“The order was designed to monitor your use of the internet to enable the police to see exactly what you had been looking at.
“You either downloaded or installed a device on your computer that would make that difficult.
“That’s a breach of the SHPO even though the prosecution concede you had only used the device to access gaming.
“But you would not have needed to instal it or use it if you only intended to access gaming sites because they are not in any shape or form illegal.
So, the prosecution case is that there must have been an ulterior motive as an appropriate logic.
Passing sentence, Judge Clews said it was “not unjust” to activate six-months of the suspended prison sentence, as part of a total 12-month jail term.
While almost nine years of last year’s SHPO remain in place, the judge said the defendant will be subject to notification requirements as a sex offender for the next seven years.
