STEPHEN POLLITT'S CRIMINAL OFFENSES IN BRADFORD REPORTED

In April 2019, Stephen Pollitt, aged 58, appeared before Bradford Crown Court after illegally installing a software cleaning app on his phone to erase its internet memory. Prosecutor Paul Nicholson stated that Pollitt breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order just days after acquiring a Samsung Galaxy S5. He failed to inform police that he had purchased the device and subsequently installed the cleaning app. Pollitt, who was formerly residing in Steeton and now lives in Lashmere, Cranleigh, Surrey, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of breaching the order by possessing a phone not registered with West Yorkshire Police and by wiping its memory.

The court was informed that Pollitt has a prior conviction from 2010 for the sexual assault of a girl under 13, for which he was imprisoned and placed on the sex offender register for life. Earlier, on March 4, 2019, Bradford Crown Court sentenced him to a three-year community order for four offenses related to making indecent photographs of children. A sexual harm prevention order was also issued against him until further notice.

During mitigation, it was explained that Pollitt claimed he bought the phone and believed he only needed to register it if he changed his phone number. The phone was second-hand, and a warning about a virus prompted him to download the cleaning app, which led to the breach. The court was told, “There’s no cloak and dagger here, it was purely accidental on his part.” However, Judge Jonathan Rose rejected this explanation, stating, “You have significant paedophilic tendencies and you don’t accept that you have a sexual interest in children.” He further advised Pollitt, “If you get a mobile phone, you have to report it to the police so its use can be monitored,” and imposed a renewed three-year community order, urging Pollitt to comply fully.

In March 2019, Pollitt was also sentenced for downloading indecent images of children. He was arrested after being caught downloading images onto his phone in December 2017 and January 2018, and pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images. The court found that four or five images on his phone were classified as the most serious Category A images. Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, the Recorder of Bradford, sentenced Pollitt to participate in a 90-day accredited group work program and issued him a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, opting against immediate imprisonment. The judge remarked, “Behind every one of these images is the abuse of children, so men like you can get some pathetic satisfaction. It’s an abhorrent perversion.”