ONLINE CHILD SEX OFFENDER STEPHEN MCLEAN, JAILED FOR NINE YEARS AT NEWCASTLE CROWN COURT
A paedophile who sexually exploited a girl and distributed indecent images of children on the internet is starting a lengthy prison sentence.Police searched McLean’s Sunderland address after receiving intelligence in October 2024, and several devices were seized.
He was arrested that month after an indecent image was found on one of the devices, but then intelligence emerged identifying McLean as having sexually communicated with an undercover officer, posing as a 12-year-old child.
Further devices were seized, and almost 500 indecent images were recovered, some of which were sent to him by a child he had been grooming.
The investigation found McLean had made threats to the victim, including inciting and threatening to sell images of her to other paedophiles.
The 25-year-old was faced with a total of 19 charges.
They included four counts each of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and inciting the sexual exploitation of a child, two each of arranging/facilitating the commission of sexual activity with a child and attempting sexual communication with a child, three counts each of possession and distribution of indecent images of a child, plus a single count of sexual communications with a child.
All of these offences put him in breach an interim Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
McLean, of Cherrytree Square in Hollycarrside, Sunderland pleaded guilty to all the offences at Newcastle Crown Court in March this year.
He appeared back at the same court on Monday (April 27) when he was sentenced to a total of nine years’ imprisonment.
McLean will also then spend five years on extended post-release licence.
He will now also be subject to registration as a sex offender, and to internet and child contact restrictions, under the terms of a SHPO, both for 15 years.
Speaking after the sentencing hearing, Detective Constable David Laybourne, of the Northumbria force, said: “Firstly, I’d like to give praise to the victim/survivor.
She has been subjected to an appalling and life-changing ordeal.
This has not only affected her, but her family as well.
I’d like to thank her and her family for their support during our investigation.
“No sentence can undo the trauma she has endured, but I hope the outcome provides some measure of reassurance that he has been held fully accountable for what he did.
McLean was a sexual predator who prayed on a vulnerable child and exploited her.
No-one should ever be put in that position.
"Sex offenders may think operating online and on social media allows them to evade the law, yet this case highlights how far officers will go to protect victims and bring perpetrators to justice." Detective Constable Laybourne added: “We know that children spend a lot of time online, and we would encourage parents and guardians to have conversations around their activity as better education all around can help protect our children.
We would always encourage anyone with information about this type of offending, or anyone who thinks they have been a victim to come forward and talk to us – we’re here for you and we will support you.”
