Crime
Peterborough sex offender jailed for owning child abuse book
A convicted child sex offender was jailed for breaching a court order by owning a book about child abuse.
Stuart Merry, 43, was visited unannounced in September by police officers who found a book by his bed about a boy who was sexually abused.
Merry realised he should not have the book and claimed he was going to return it.
It contravened a condition of Merry’s Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which banned him from possessing, buying, or reading any material that is linked to child sexual abuse.
His SHPO was given following convictions for committing an act of outraging public decency from November 2001, an indecent assault on a girl under 14 in January 2010 and gross indecency with a girl, also in January 2010.
On Monday, at Cambridge Crown Court, Merry, of Nursery Close, Peterborough, was jailed for 16 months after admitting breaching his SHPO.
Stuart Merry, 43, was visited unannounced in September by police officers who found a book by his bed about a boy who was sexually abused.
PC Zoe Rogers said: “Stuart Merry is a high-risk sexual offender who knew about the conditions of his SHPO yet chose to breach part of it.
“We will not tolerate blatant breaches of court orders like this, so I am pleased Merry has been brought to account.”
