The Chronicle

Pervert jailed for sickening images

CONVICTED OFFENDER USED KINDLE TO SEARCH FOR PICTURES

- By KATIE DICKINSON Reporter katie.dickinson@reachplc.com

A PERVERT was found to have breached a court order when police discovered sick child abuse images on a Kindle his family had trusted him with.

Michael Clay-McClusky was given a suspended prison sentence by a judge in November 2018 after being convicted of possessing indecent images of children.

The 53-year-old was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), but a court heard he complied for only “a few months” before seeking out the vile material online again.

When police went to his home for a review in September last year, they asked him to hand over any electronic devices he had.

Newcastle Crown Court heard one of these was a Kindle, on which officers found an indecent video of a teenage girl.

Prosecutor Emma Dowling said that on closer inspection, there were three images and five videos on the Kindle. The five videos were category A – the most serious, showing penetrativ­e sexual activity.

One of the videos showed a girl believed to be as young as six years old. The court heard it was clear that

Clay-McClusky had also been deleting his internet history – something he had been banned from doing as part of his SHPO.

Ms Dowling said: “One can assume key words must have been entered, hence the need to delete that history.”

Clay-McClusky was arrested and admitted looking at the images “for his own sexual gratificat­ion”.

Tony Cornberg, mitigating, said Clay-McClusky had a “history of fixation, described as addiction” with this material.

He told the court that the defendant had accessed a counsellin­g charity whilst in custody and that his wife was willing to take him back after his prison sentence, saying she had “PIN-coded and password-protected all the devices”.

Mr Cornberg said: “The probation interventi­on, particular­ly during lockdown, was fairly minimal.” ClayMcClus­ky, of Old Durham Road, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

The judge, Recorder Nicholas Lumley QC, told him: “Your stepdaught­er talks of you having been prevented from accessing these sorts of devices.

“She or her mother relented because they thought you could be trusted, but it seems you couldn’t be trusted.

“You had been looking at them for a period of nine months.

“I accept you tried for a few months to comply with the prevention order, but after a couple of months you went looking for that sort of material for your own sexual gratificat­ion.”

The judge sentenced ClayMcClus­ky to a total of two years and two months in prison.

 ??  ?? Michael Clay-McClusky
Michael Clay-McClusky

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