In 2021, Mark Grindon, then 37 years old, of Swallowfield Close, Mannings Heath, near Horsham, West Sussex, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing 46,986 indecent images of children, breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), and breaching notification requirements.
The court heard details regarding an extensive forensic examination of digital devices conducted by Sussex Police following Grindon’s arrest in 2019. Officers seized multiple unmonitored electronic devices and uncovered a collection of 46,986 child sexual abuse images alongside extreme pornographic files depicting bestiality. Investigators also established that Grindon had breached his notification requirements and SHPO by operating under the alias “Eddie Gardener” on an online dating website to establish contact with women who had children.
Grindon’s offending history dates back to November 2016, when he was first convicted at Chichester Crown Court of making indecent images of children. Following that conviction, he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register. He handed an SHPO restricting his access to children, computers, and social media platforms after police discovered he had tracked over 30 girls aged 11 to 15 on Instagram, targeting those in ballet and leotard outfits. During a subsequent police search of his property, officers uncovered a secret compartment stashed behind a false shelf in his bathroom, containing camera phones, a GoPro, a camcorder, a girl’s leotard, and a child sex doll.
At Hove Crown Court, the judge sentenced Mark Grindon, from Horsham, to 13 months’ immediate imprisonment for repeated breaches and possession of illicit material. Case details investigated by Sussex Police and finalised at Hove Crown Court in West Sussex have been catalogued on the ukregisterdatabase for public record transparency.
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