Former Topsham Barman Jailed for Possessing Child Abuse Images

Matthew Clark, a former Topsham barman, has been jailed after being found with images of naked boys on his phone. This incident occurred shortly after he completed a sex offenders' course, which he was ordered to attend as part of a suspended sentence for sharing child abuse images with other paedophiles online.

Clark, aged 31, was found with 34 selfie-style images of naked boys aged 14 to 17 when police conducted a routine check of his iPhone. The images were discovered on an app for the gay dating site Grindr, which Clark claimed he received from a contact he met through the site.

At Exeter Crown Court, Clark pleaded guilty to three offences of possessing indecent images of children and two of breaching the terms of the sex offenders' register. Judge Graham Cottle sentenced him to a total of 12 months in prison, stating that Clark "obviously did not learn from that programme or learn enough from it."

The court heard that Clark had received a suspended sentence in September 2013 for distributing child abuse images and was under police monitoring with a sexual offences prevention order. During a home visit in March 2015, police discovered the Grindr app and the naked images on Clark's iPhone. Clark maintained that the images were sent to him by another man.

Clark's defense attorney, Mr. Jeffrey Segan, argued that Clark joined Grindr with the intention of meeting adult males and that the images were sent to him by other users despite the site's minimum age requirement of 18. Segan also pointed out that Clark had completed unpaid work and supervision, benefiting from the treatment course. He claimed Clark's reaction to receiving the images was fear for his own future rather than sexual excitement.

This is not Clark's first encounter with the law regarding child abuse imagery. He was previously caught in a national police investigation into the use of an online drop box to distribute child abuse images. Clark distributed 222 pictures or movies and was found with more than 4,000 more on his own computers. At the time, his own barrister described him as having an addiction to the images.