Peterborough paedophile jailed after police discovered him with bedside book about child abuse

A convicted child sex offender has been jailed for breaching a strict court order by owning a book about child abuse. 

Stuart Merry, 43, from Peterborough, was visited unannounced in September by police officers who found a book by his bed about a boy being sexually abused.

Merry realised he should not have had the book and claimed he was going to return it.

The book contravened a condition of Merry’s Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which banned him from possessing, buying or reading any material 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.  

At Cambridge Crown Court, Merry, of Nursery Close, Peterborough, was jailed for 16 months after admitting 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 please Merry has been brought to account.”