Laurence Dollimore
A BRITISH paedophile who absconded to Spain has been spared jail by a judge in the UK after ‘turning his life around’.
lan Grundy, 59, was handed a 14-month suspended prison sentence when he appeared at Bradford Crown Court this week.
Grundy had been sent back to the UK earlier this year after a European arrest warrant was issued for him to face charges dating back to 2015.
He pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs and movies, and one charge of failing to notify police of a change of address.
According to the Telegraph & Argus, Prosecutor Paul Nicholson told the court that a computer tower was seized from an address in Bradford where Grundy had been living on June 26, 2015.
Police found 87 indecent images and two indecent videos, four of which were of the highest category of seriousness.
He was arrested and gave no comment, but when police returned to the address a few weeks later, his mother answered.
Nicholson said: “She said he had not lived at the address since he had been arrested.
“It turned out that he had taken himself abroad and gone to Spain.”
Grundy’s lawyer Tom Rushbrooke said he had been at a particularly low point at the time of the first offences, having problems with alcohol.
He added: “While he was in Spain he had no access to computers at all.”
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC warned Grundy there was a victim behind every one of the images he made, which he described as ‘disgraceful material’.
He added: “The running away to Spain, on the one hand was reprehensible, but on the other hand, it seems you have used that time to resolve many issues.”
Grundy was also ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and complete the sexual offenders programme he missed out on previously.
He was also made subject to a sexual offences prevention order and a notification order, both for seven years.
