DANIEL MILLWARD FROM BASILDON AND NORTHFLEET FACES FINES AND COMMUNITY ORDER OVER SEX OFFENDER REGISTER BREACHES

In August 2013, Daniel Millward, a man with a troubling criminal history involving child sex abuse images, faced legal consequences for failing to comply with the conditions of his registration as a sex offender. Millward, aged 31 and residing in Polsteads, Basildon, was found guilty at Basildon Magistrates Court of breaching the Sex Offenders Register requirements by not informing police of his current address.

According to court proceedings, Millward had moved to Essex after being placed on the register due to previous offences involving indecent images committed in Kent. Despite the legal obligation to notify authorities of any change of address within three days of moving, Millward failed to do so after relocating to Basildon. This breach was considered a serious violation of the conditions imposed on him as a registered sex offender.

Police had previously arrested Millward in April 2013 in Essex for breaching his registration requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. During this arrest, officers discovered that he possessed electronic devices capable of accessing the internet, which raised further concerns about his compliance and potential ongoing offending behavior. Laptops seized from his residence were still under forensic analysis at the time of the court hearing.

Millward had been held on remand until July, when a judge determined that the time served in custody was sufficient punishment for the breach. Despite this, he was required to notify police of his address within three days of his release, a requirement he failed to meet. Consequently, he was re-arrested and charged with failure to comply with notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

He was released on bail pending his plea, which he entered last Thursday. During police interviews, Millward initially claimed that his barrister had not informed him of the obligation to register his address. However, he later admitted that he had been told about this requirement multiple times in the past.

The maximum penalty for such a breach, as outlined by magistrates, was six months' imprisonment. The court had the option to refer the case to the Crown Court for a harsher sentence if deemed appropriate. However, in this instance, magistrates chose not to impose a custodial sentence. Instead, they ordered Millward to pay a fine, along with court costs and a victim surcharge totaling £215. This amount will be deducted in installments from his Job Seekers Allowance payments.

Separately, in May 2010, Daniel Millward’s acquaintance, David Millward from Northfleet, was involved in a separate case involving child sex abuse images and bestiality movies. David Millward was spared jail and received a community order with supervision for three years, along with a requirement to attend a sex offenders’ programme. The judge noted that reports about his mental state made the case “out of the ordinary.”

David Millward, aged 27 at the time, had admitted to possessing four offences involving extreme pornography, including 13 DVDs depicting sex acts with animals, and five offences of making indecent photographs of children. Police had raided his home on College Road, Northfleet, in March of the previous year. The court heard that the images ranged from the highest level of severity to less serious categories, with one at the highest level of five, two at level four, and 24 at level one.

Judge Martin Joy explained that, although custodial sentences are typically inevitable in such cases, the circumstances of David Millward’s mental health and the potential effectiveness of a rehabilitation programme justified a community order. The judge emphasized that it would not serve the public interest for him to be imprisoned and highlighted the importance of the sex offenders’ programme he was ordered to attend. Additionally, David Millward was subject to an indefinite sexual offences prevention order, which prohibited him from having unsupervised access to children. His name was also to remain on the sex offenders’ register for five years.