Michael Bell 76

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A 76-year-old sex offender who continued his crimes immediately after being sentenced for earlier offences has been jailed.

Police found 39 indecent images of girls on Michael Bell’s computer when they visited him on April 10, York Crown Court heard.

Kelly Clarke, prosecuting, said the illegal images had been downloaded between March 18 and April 10.

On March 28, Bell had been given a suspended prison sentence at York Crown Court on condition he did 30 days’ rehabilitative activities and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) at the same court for having indecent images of children.

Bell, 76, of Firs Crescent, Harrogate, denied  having indecent images and breaching the SHPO. He was convicted at trial at York Magistrates Court which sent him back to York Crown Court for sentence. 

Judge Simon Hickey, who had spared Bell an immediate trip to jail on March 28, locked him up for 14 months.

“I take the view it cannot be suspended due to the recent breach of the suspended sentence order by committing similar offences in a very short period of time,” he said.

The new images included pictures of girls aged between nine and 15 years old.

The 14-month prison sentence included 12 months from the suspended prison sentence and two months for the new offences.

Bell had been remanded in custody for 11 weeks, following his arrest in April.

Daisy Wrigley, for Bell, said the lack of exercise in prison and his health problems, including heart problems, meant that he collapsed from time to time.

Ms Clarke said Bell was convicted of having indecent images of children of all three levels of seriousness in March and given a 15-month prison sentence suspended on condition with conditions.

On April 10, two police officers went to Bell’s address so they could check his internet devices as part of the SHPO order and to remove apps from them that he was not allowed to have under the order.

He showed them a Dell computer with a Dropbox application on it and when they opened it, they saw three sexual images of a girl aged 11 to 13. He told them they had been part of the images for which he was convicted in March.

They seized the computer and a forensic check revealed the 39 illegal images of the least serious category downloaded between March 18 and April 10.

They also found a Plex media player installed in contravention of the SHPO.

Ms Wrigley said Bell hadn’t understood what he could and couldn’t have on his computer. He had downloaded it, thinking he was allowed to do that so he could play videos when he was abroad on holiday and at home.

He now accepted he had a problem and was willing to work on rehabilitating himself.