Sunderland child sex offender in court over new computer

A Sunderland offender convicted of child image offences nine years ago landed back in hot water when he failed to tell police he had bought a new computer.

Steven Gray’s blunder was uncovered when his risk offender manager visited his home in The Sanderlings, Ryhope Colliery, and spotted the device.

When quizzed, machine operator Gray, 55, said he had purchased the HP Elite five months earlier and was unaware of his reporting obligations.

His failure to inform put him in breach of a court order which compels him to alert officers to his possession of any internet-enabled product within three days.

The command is part of a sexual harm prevention order imposed by Durham Crown Court in 2015, magistrates in South Tyneside heard.

He appeared at the higher court to plead guilty to charges of possessing child abuse images.

Police who raided his then former home in Seaham, found indecent images – mainly of female children - on two laptops.

Gray was sentenced to a two-year community order and made subject of a sexual harm prevention order, and to the Sex Offenders’ Register for three years.

At his new court hearing in South Tyneside, he admitted a charge of breaching a sexual harm prevention order on Saturday, June 24, 2023.

Prosecutor Ruth Foster said Gray confessed to buying the computer the previous January but had claimed he was unaware of his obligation to reveal it to officers.

Syed Ahmed, defending, said it was Gray’s first breach of the order and he had no other convictions.

Mr Ahmed added: “The reality is that he has had this order for almost a decade. There’s been no breaches.

“He accepts that he bought a new computer. Previously, there had been a computer that had been registered with the police but that had broken down.

“He went to a shop and bought another and didn’t realise that he had to register it with the police, he thought that he was just replacing the old with the new.

“When it was examined by the police there was nothing on it, and nothing on the previous device. There has been no harm or distress caused to anyone.”

Magistrates fined Gray £253, with a £101 victim surcharge and £85 court costs.