A SENIOR police officer investigating new allegations against a convicted Belleek sex-offender said it is ‘by far one of the worst she has ever seen.’
Alun Cleary (38) of Main Street in he border village is accused of five counts of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), which was imposed after his last convictions.
He has been remanded in custody since being arrested for the alleged breaches, which consist of allegedly accessing the social media app Telegram and four counts possessing a non-approved storage device without permission.
There is also a count of possessing an indecent image of a child. Offending is alleged to have occurred on May 31.
A detective sergeant aware of the facts of the case previously confirmed the charges could be connected.
Cleary did not apply for bail and it has since emerged his prison licence for previous offending has been revoked and he has been recalled to serve out the sentence in full.
While no details surrounding the circumstances of the case have been disclosed to date, it is known Cleary allegedly reoffended shortly after his release from prison.
A prosecuting lawyer provided an update at the most recent court sitting, explaining a specialist team is working on victim identification and grading of the images in terms of seriousness and to date those recovered as in all categories of seriousness.
“The case has been given priority status and extremely disturbing content has been recovered,” they said.
Examination must be done in a sensitive manner. An officer is having to ascertain if there has been further offending.
“There are 8800 Telegram groups and in excess of 55,000 communication chats.
“There are many instances of the defendant speaking to like-minded people with videos and photographs exchanged.”
She added, “It should be noted the officer leading the investigation has described this as by far one of the worst cases she has ever seen.”
District Judge Barney McElhome remanded Cleary in continuing custody to appear again by video-link on November 24.