Locations
Cambridge Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4
Description
A convicted child sex offender has been locked up after he hid three mobile phones and other digital devices in his Newcastle home.
Roland Mitchell, who was jailed in the 1980s and 1990s for indecently assaulting youngsters, was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order in 2016 after he was caught with indecent images of kids. Under the terms of the order, the 74-year-old must inform police of any devices he owned, which were capable of accessing the internet or storing digital photos or videos.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that, during a routine visit to his home, an officer noticed that his regular mobile phone had a very small internet history, which aroused her suspicions. A subsequent search of the property found three further phones, a laptop, a tablet, a USB and hard drive device and three camcorders.
Now, Mitchell, of Cambridge Street, in Elswick, Newcastle, has been jailed for 10 months after he pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and two of failing to comply with notification requirements of the sex offenders register.
Rachael Glover, prosecuting, said an officer attended Mitchell's address on November 30 last year. She added: "During that visit, the defendant handed over a mobile phone, in which the officer identified there was very little internet history and, suspecting this may be down to him deleting the history, he was arrested."
A later search of the flat uncovered the hidden devices, as well as a Barclays bank card and a passport, which he must also tell police about under the terms of his order. During interview, Mitchell claimed he had forgotten about the digital devices but had no explanation for the three phones.
The court heard that Mitchell had 32 offences on his record, including gross indecency from 1964, indecent assault on a female under 14 in 1980 and similar offending in 1983. He was then jailed again in 1998 for indecent assault. Caroline McGurk, defending, said Mitchell now suffered with ill health and there was no evidence that he had used the devices in a "suspect" way.
Locking him up, Judge Penny Moreland said: "They were deliberate breaches and I'm satisfied it couldn't be anything other than deliberate to posses that number of devices."