A 42-year-old man from Mannings Heath, Horsham, has been sentenced to a total of five years and four months’ imprisonment after amassing more than 1,400 child sexual abuse images and persistently breaching his court restrictions.
Mark Grindon, of Swallowfield Close, Mannings Heath, appeared across hearings at Hove Crown Court and Crawley Magistrates’ Court following a protracted inquiry led by Sussex Police.
The court was told that Grindon had previously been made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) in October 2016 following convictions for six counts of making indecent images of children. That order was varied to an indefinite duration in December 2019 following further convictions.
In December 2023, police carried out a targeted vehicle stop and arrested Grindon after discovering he had an unmonitored smartphone prohibited under the terms of his order. After being remanded into custody at Crawley Magistrates’ Court, Grindon admitted two counts of breaching an SHPO at Lewes Crown Court and was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment on 7 March 2024.
While Grindon served that term, detectives undertook an extensive forensic investigation of the seized media. Specialists retrieved more than 1,400 indecent images of children and identified 11 covert social media accounts registered under aliases including “Bob” and “Ricard”.
Sussex Police executed a further search warrant at Grindon’s address in Mannings Heath in August 2025, locating and seizing a second smartphone, a laptop, several SD memory cards, and an internet streaming unit.
Under the provisions of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 and Section 49 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, all children depicted in abuse imagery are protected by automatic, lifelong statutory anonymity. Publishing, broadcasting, or disseminating any details, names, addresses, or images capable of leading to the public identification of any victim is strictly prohibited under UK law.
On 14 September 2026, Grindon appeared at Hove Crown Court. He pleaded guilty to five counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and stood trial on five further charges. On 18 September 2026, a jury returned guilty verdicts on all contested counts:
Three counts of making an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child
One count of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order
One count of failing to comply with sex offender register notification requirements
The trial judge sentenced Grindon to five years’ imprisonment across the 10 offences.
On 28 September 2026, Grindon returned to court at Crawley Magistrates’ Court, where he was sentenced to an additional four months’ imprisonment—to run consecutively—for failing to comply with a court order compelling him to provide PIN codes, passwords, and patterns for his seized hardware, resulting in an aggregate sentence of five years and four months.
Under standard UK statutory sentencing provisions for determinate custodial sentences, Grindon will be required to serve his term in closed prison conditions before becoming eligible for conditional release on licence under probation supervision.
Alongside the custodial term, the court confirmed:
An ongoing indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) prohibiting unmonitored internet access and unauthorised digital devices
Continued compliance with mandatory notification requirements on the Sex Offenders Register under the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
Image – Anonymous Artist Impression
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