Locations
Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, TS5
Description
A pervert is starting his third prison sentence after he was caught with an illegal image of a baby girl on his mobile phone.
Matthew Laidler "appeared nervous and was tapping away on his mobile" when his offender manager made an unannounced visit to his Middlesbrough home, on October 8. Laidler had been released from a 29-month prison sentence five days earlier.
Teesside Crown Court heard that the 33-year-old claimed he was "texting his grandma" but police found that he had been sent an indecent image of a baby. He replied to the sender: "Hi bud. Beautiful. I've nothing to send back to you at the moment" before making an explicit sexual comment about the baby.
Laidler had downloaded the Wickr and Mega apps, where users can send end-to-end encrypted messages.
Laidler, who gives his address as HMP Durham but is from Linthorpe in Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to the possession of an indecent image and failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements. He was convicted of the sexual assault of a child in 2006; and he was jailed for the first time in 2015 for the possession of indecent images of children.
In April 2022, he was handed another the 29-month prison term after it emerged he'd been babysitting young girls, sleeping over and giving one of them baths. The terms of his licence prohibited from having any contact with children.
The court heard that after his latest offence, Laidler was recalled to prison to serve the remainder of his 2022 sentence, which finishes in December 2024. He listened on video link from HMP Durham as Judge Paul Watson told him that the apps he had downloaded were capable of "removing any trace of messages."
Laidler was handed a 26-month prison sentence.