Milton Keynes paedophile banned from using internet is jailed after using library computers to get online

A convicted paedophile who had been banned from using the internet has been jailed again after using Milton Keynes library's computers to try to get back online.

Matthew Dawson was first jailed in 2017 after he was found making and distributing disturbing category A, B and C images of babies and toddlers.

He has now appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court again - a year later - after messages were found talking to single mums on a website asking to abuse their children.

Summarising the latest, case prosecutor Victoria Forbes said Dawson had tried meeting up with the mums, but had not managed to. It later transpired that some of the mothers were actually men.

After his earlier court appearances, 37-year-old Dawson was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which bans him from accessing the internet in any way.

However, the court heard that he had breached that order in three separate ways - using computers at his local library in Milton Keynes, using his mother's laptop and buying himself a phone.

His "cunning behaviour" was only revealed when a police public protection officer went to Dawson's house for one of his scheduled regular visits and asked how he was "coping" not being able to access the internet.

Ms Forbes said: "He didn't reply and instead looked at the floor, later admitting his crimes."

He told the police that for the last two years he had been using his mother's laptop at her home in a bid to search for a new place to live and some paid work. However, he had also watched adult pornography on it and looked at old emails that had been sent to him, containing disgusting photographs of children.

Dawson admitted that he had gone into Milton Keynes library and signed on as a guest at one of the library computers several times over three months, earlier this year.

The court heard that detectives had tried without luck to find his internet history on the library computer and even analysed his body language and screen on CCTV cameras in the library.

One of the charge he faced related to his mission to buy a phone, which ended with him throwing it in the bin after it couldn't get onto the internet with it.

Mitigating, his defence barrister Dana Bilan said that he was "shamed and remorseful" over his actions and had opened up to her about his experience of child abuse when he was a youngster.

However, the judge rejected any attempts to win him a suspended sentence, saying he had "no realistic prospect of rehabilitation."

Judge Catherine Tulk told Dawson: "You had been accessing computers in Milton Keynes library between February and April 2023 which earlier a police protection officer had specifically warned you about. You lied to him and said you weren't doing any of that.

"You also admitted that for two years you had been using your parents' laptop not just for looking for somewhere to live which was one of your excuses that you gave, but also accessing old emails. Emails which contained indecent images of children. Earlier you had also bought yourself a mobile phone, quite clearly specifically to access the internet and when it didn't access the internet, you threw it away."

The judge said Dawson had shown signs of "manipulative and cunning behaviour", and had "persistently, continued to find ways to offend and get around the court order."

"These were considered, calculated and deceptive ways to get around this order which was specifically put in place to protect the public. You very clearly pose a serious risk.

"You do not have a realistic prospect of rehabilitation."

For each of the three counts she sentenced him to two years in prison, all to run concurrently. This means he must serve one year in prison before he is considered for parole.