In 2019, the Offender Database reported on a controversial legal ruling regarding Barry Cutler, then 68, of Beckenham, South East London. Cutler, a former member of the notorious and defunct Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), was granted a variation to his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) allowing him to maintain contact with a fellow convicted sex offender on the grounds of “social isolation.”
The court heard that Barry Cutler was initially jailed in 2011 following a major police raid on the Putney home of PIE ringleader Steven Freeman. During that operation, authorities uncovered a massive cache of 15,000 indecent images and 3,000 obscene sketches. Cutler pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of indecent photographs of a child and one count of failing to disclose a digital encryption key. Prosecutors described the group as a “determined and sophisticated paedophile ring” that used encrypted technology to share “sickening” images and even a computer game titled Epicenium, which awarded points for the digital rape of children.
Despite the severity of his previous actions, Cutler applied to the Old Bailey to have his SOPO restrictions loosened, arguing that his social circle was “minimal” and that the ban on associating with long-term friends was disproportionate. Judge Nicholas Cooke QC agreed to allow Cutler to communicate with Anthony Zalewski, another ex-PIE member with child sex convictions from 1976 and 1985. The judge acknowledged that while the association was “worrying,” Cutler was a “sad figure” who lacked friends and was socially isolated.
However, Judge Cooke and subsequent appeal judges refused to scrap the SOPO entirely. They noted that Cutler still “lacks insight into the damage done by child pornography” and maintained that without the order, he would likely offend again. The court highlighted the danger of these individuals reinforcing each other’s “abhorrent views.” Evidence from the original 2011 trial revealed the group’s extremist ideology; ringleader Steven Freeman had used the internet as an “enabling technology” to promote the abolition of the age of consent and advocate for “cyber communities” to further their perverted interests.
Barry Cutler remains a lifelong registrant on the Sex Offenders Register. Although he is permitted contact with Zalewski, he remains under strict supervision. His associates from the 2011 conviction—John Parratt, John Morrison, and Steven Freeman—were also subjected to long-term monitoring. Freeman had previously been designated as a significant risk to the public and was locked up indefinitely.
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