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 now been given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Martin Turnbull, 57, unemployed, of Langley Drive, Langley Green, Crawley, was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on Thursday 21 April, 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 also ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and 20 hours of rehabilitation work.

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."