Convicted Crawley online child sex offender sentenced for accessing Internet

A convicted Crawley sex offender who accessed the Internet in spite of a court order ordering him not to do so, has been sentenced.
By Richard Gladstone
Published 27th Apr 2022, 17:48 BST
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Police said Martin Turnbull, 57, unemployed, of Langley Drive, Langley Green, Crawley, was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on Thursday (April 21), after admitting breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), imposed in 2018 after he was convicted of possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

He was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

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Police said he was also ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and 20 hours of rehabilitation work.

Scales of justice SUS-211215-232610001Scales of justice SUS-211215-232610001
Scales of justice SUS-211215-232610001

The SHPO in 2018 had included a prohibition on his possession of devices enabling access to the Internet.

However in 2021 police received intelligence that he was accessing the Internet, and when they searched his home officers found six devices including a laptop and USB sticks which he had hidden, although there was no evidence that he had accessed indecent images of children.

PC Matthew Wyatt, of the West Sussex VISOR Team, responsible for the supervision of registered sex offenders and SHPOs, said: “We will always follow up information about breaches of court orders by convicted sexual offenders, and bring them before the court wherever possible.”