A child rapist is back in jail after police discovered his collection of extreme pornography.
Michael Wright was found deleting content from his laptop when a police officer visited his home. The device was seized and more than 150 images of bestiality were discovered - along with Google searches for more depraved content.
Wright was jailed in 2016 after admitting a string of child sexual offences including three counts of rape. Then of Southport, the HGV driver was sentenced to seven years in jail.
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He had been released on licence when a police officer attended his home in June 2021. The visit was a requirement of a lifelong Sexual Harm Prevention Order he was subjected to. That order banned him from having electronic devices that police were not given access to, and from having any device that could access the internet unless it recorded his search history.
Daniel Bramhall, prosecuting, said the officer who attended Wright’s home believed he was attempting to deter them from going in, arguing: “It’s a bit of a mess.” Once inside, the officer found the flat “clean and tidy” and saw two laptops and a mobile phone on a coffee table. One of the laptops was in use.
Mr Bramhall said: “When asked if police had the details of this device the defendant said the computer did not belong to him and he was wiping it for someone who lived downstairs.” He then claimed it was his laptop but that he was clearing it so that he could sell it.
Wright was arrested on suspicion of breaching his SHPO and the laptops seized. The one that was having its memory cleared was found to hold 169 images of extreme pornography, typically involving animals. The images dated back to 2016 and Wright said: “I was addicted to pornography at the time… it was depraved.” The 54-year-old admitted possession of extreme pornography and breaching his SHPO.
Gareth Roberts, defending Wright, told Liverpool Crown Court his client had sought to fight his “demons” over recent years but said that in 2016: “He was in the grip of an insidious and rather horrible addiction to pornography.”
Mr Roberts said this “decimated” his client’s life but said the images found on his laptop had been downloaded a long time ago and since his conviction he had worked hard to turn his life around. He added: “He wants to get on with the process of rehabilitating himself.”
Judge Stuart Driver, QC, said Wright was caught “in the very act” of deleting his laptop’s history but accepted there was no evidence of recent unlawful activity.
He handed Wright, who has been in prison since his arrest last summer, a six month jail term.
