Portsmouth paedophile spared jail for having topless images of girl after breaching suspended sentence

Paulsgrove pervert Kieran Mellish’s latest crime involving children was revealed when police raided his home on May 21 last year.

After searching the property, officers found nine Category C ‘selfie’ images of a topless girl on Mellish’s phone to whom he had been chatting online, Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

It meant the 24-year-old, of Hillsley Road, was in breach of a suspended sentence handed down to him in January 2020 for sexual communication with a 13-year-old girl. He had sent videos to her of himself performing sex acts.

Prosecutor Matthew Lawson, speaking of those offences, said: ‘He contacted the girl on Facebook with there sexual communication between the two in which he sent videos of himself. He was asking her to call him daddy and he was calling her daughter.’

But despite receiving a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years which included a sexual harm prevention order, Mellish was soon back to his old ways with his latest offences.

The court heard Mellish entered into sexualised chats with the girl before ‘solicited’ topless images of her were sent to him just five months after his previous sentence.

‘He was aware of the restrictions (from his sentence). He agreed it was illegal for him to have images of a girl who was under 18 years,’ Mr Lawson said.

‘The defendant solicited the images from a child who made the images herself.’

Mr Lawson said the teenage girl ‘felt shame’ at her actions and ‘had no idea’ of Mellish’s previous convictions.

Daniel Reilly, defending, said Mellish had ‘mild to moderate learning difficulties’ and said he was a ‘vulnerable young man’.

He added: ‘It would be unjust to activate the suspended sentence which does not have long to run.’

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Judge Timothy Mousley QC told Mellish: ‘You took advantage of a girl who was 16 or 17 at the time and you blatantly breached your notification requirements.

‘The impact on her was significant - she is still embarrassed and ashamed.’

The judge said Mellish had undertaken a course to curb his ways and had ‘engaged well with probation’ but said: ‘More work needs to be done.’

He added: ‘There is clear evidence you can be rehabilitated in the community rather than prison.’

Mellish, who admitted making indecent images of a child and breaching his notification requirements, was handed an 18-month jail term suspended for 18 months and told to pay a £100 fine.

He was also told to complete the ‘new me MoT course’ and was given notification requirements for 10 years.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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