Brighton child porn offender ordered to stay on sex offenders register

A Brighton man has been told he must stay on the sex offenders register.

William Pollard, 58, was caught filming naked boys in swimming pool changing rooms and prosecuted for voyeurism and child porn offences.

Police found the child porn when they searched his home after his arrest.

The father of an eight-year-old boy uncovered the illicit filming as his son dried himself after showering. The man spotted a lens poking out from under a towel in Pollard’s bag.

The father was with his son and the lad’s 13-year-old brother at the time.

Pollard was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and a sexual offences prevention order restricting his contact with children under 16.

He was banned from schools, leisure centres and children’s play areas.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years. He was sentenced in 2006. The seven years ends in May next year.

Pollard, who has completed a sex offender programme, had not reoffended since 2005, his lawyer Robin Shellard told Swindon Crown Court.

Mr Shellard said that the effect of the sexual offences prevention order was that Pollard had to remain on the sex offenders register even when the seven years had elapsed.

And this meant telling the police where he lived.

Mr Shellard asked for the sexual offences prevention order to end at the same time.

Judge Euan Ambrose, sitting at Swindon Crown Court, turned down Pollard’s request.

He said: “The question is whether the sexual offences prevention order should continue. My judgment is it should continue.”

The court was told that Pollard, formerly of Pleydells in Cricklade, had since moved to Brighton.

The filming took place at the Oasis Leisure Centre and Milton Road Health Hydro in Swindon.

Police searched Pollard’s home after his arrest. There they found a large stash of pictures and movies of men and boys changing after swimming.

He had also downloaded child porn from the internet.

At his trial he admitted charges of voyeurism and making seven indecent images of children from 2003 to 2005.