Latest Offenders Enniskillen

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A “devious” sex offender who admitted downloading thousands of indecent images of children dumped his mobile phone into a lough in disgust at what he had done, the High Court heard on Wednesday.

William Mullan told police his addiction then drove him to access and store more photographs of babies and other youngsters on a second device.

The 42-year-old, of Old Rossorry Park in Enniskillen, used an alias to set up social media accounts in order to obtain the material online.

Details emerged as he was refused bail on charges of breaching a Sexual Offenders Prevention Order (SOPO) and possessing indecent images.

Prosecutors said police were alerted earlier this month that he had used Snapchat to post a Category A video of a child online in October last year.

Mullan had used an alias to register an account on the messaging platform.

A phone seized from the defendant was examined and found to contain 2,500 images of children ranging from babies to teenagers, the court heard.

By that stage, a 10-year SOPO had been imposed on him following a previous conviction for having indecent photos.

Crown counsel said Mullan freely admitted during interviews that he had purchased two mobiles without permission, with the intention to go online and feed his addiction to child pornography.

“He created an alias username to set up a Snapchat account and then engaged with children he believed to be aged between 15 and 17,” the barrister disclosed.

Referring to the undiscovered device, she added: “He said he threw that phone in the lough as he was disgusted with what was on it, [but] admitted it contained a lot of bad things, namely indecent images of children.”

Mullan then purchased the second mobile and used it to access the Telegram messaging app, again intent on accessing similar illegal material.

“He said he downloaded up to 2,000 images onto the app and then, after a period of time, he would delete them due to his disgust with himself,” the prosecutor submitted.

“He has done this at least five times.”

The court also heard Mullan changed the SIM card twice after being banned from the app for being involved with indecent images.

Opposing bail, she argued that he is a Category One registered sex offender who poses a high risk.

“He is saying that he has an active addiction,” counsel stressed.

Mullan’s barrister suggested he could be safely managed and should be released from custody due to anticipated delays in the case.

However, Lord Justice Horner refused bail, based on concerns about potential re-offending.

He told the defendant’s legal representatives: “He’s quite obviously devious and prepared to take steps to access images he should not be accessing.”

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Dangerous rapist Rory O'Connor appeared at Fermanagh Court on Monday when the PSNI applied for a SOPO (Sexual Offences Prevention Order) to "protect the public from serious harm" from him.

The violent 45-year-old criminal had been living secretly at an address in Enniskillen.

The police application stated that since his conviction for rape on October 11, 2002, O'Connor has acted in such a way as to give reasonable cause to believe a SOPO is necessary to "protect the public from serious harm" from him.

A defence barrister said O'Connor was consenting to a Notification Order under Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, requiring him to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.

The barrister handed District Judge Liam McNally a letter and applied for an order banning the press from reporting the court case, thereby preventing the public from knowing about the legal proceedings. He submitted that the third paragraph contained the reason for such a ban.

However, after reading the letter the District Judge said he could see no reason for imposing a reporting restriction.

He made the Notification Order for an indefinite period from O'Connor's conviction on October 11, 2002.

The various measures in Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 are designed to enable the police to monitor and manage sex offenders living in the local area.

Certain sex offenders are required to notify the police of personal information such as their name, address and, as of August 13, 2012, bank and credit card details, and to update the police whenever this information changes.

The police record of this information is commonly referred to as the Sex Offenders' Register.

The notification requirements are imposed automatically on offenders convicted of certain offences in the United Kingdom, but can also be imposed by way of court order on offenders convicted in other countries. The notification requirements are imposed for a fixed or indefinite period, depending on the sentence received.

Those offenders subject to an indefinite notification period can apply to the police for a determination that they no longer pose a risk and should no longer be on the register. The earliest point at which such an application can be made is 15 years after the date of the offender's first notification.