Convicted Peterborough sex offender jailed for owning book about child abuse victim

By Ben Jones
Published 9th Nov 2022, 12:06 BST
Updated 9th Nov 2022, 14:17 BST
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A convicted child sex offender has been jailed for breaching a strict 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 shouldn’t have the book and claimed he was going to return it.

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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.

Stuart Merry.Stuart Merry.
Stuart Merry.

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 (November 7), at Cambridge Crown Court, Merry, of Nursery Close, Peterborough, was jailed for 16 months after admitting to breaching his SHPO.

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.”