Dover child sex offender found sleeping in car in Surrey village
A hearing was told that Downing, of Salisbury Road, was not allowed to use any phone or computer without letting Kent Police know and allowing monitoring software to be installed.Police said they became aware that he had been using devices without permission in February 2025 but were unable to find him at his address.In a police interview Downing refused to answer questions and was later charged with 13 offences.Charges included use of an anonymous browser, a social media app with disappearing messages and failing to notify police that he had access to a smartphone, laptop and other devices, all of which was prohibited by his SHPO.Downing was jailed for five years and three months, including a two years and three months sentence for unrelated offences committed outside of Kent.Kent Police Detective Constable Marie-Ann Boulton said: "Matthew Downing has repeatedly demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to access the internet without being complicit in the sexual abuse of children whose images he views and shares online."Sexual Harm Prevention Orders help to reduce the risk offenders like Downing may pose to the public after being released from prison, and enforcing them is a responsibility we take very seriously."Downing thought he could get away with hiding his devices from us by running away to Surrey, but our specialist officers were quickly able to locate him and bring him to justice. He will now serve another period of time behind bars as a result."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
25 minutes ago
- Times
Uh-oh, he's back in the news — it's Prince Andrew, the duke of hazard
For a man who hardly goes anywhere or sees anyone, the Duke of York has a very unfortunate habit of finding himself in the spotlight. He is the subject of a new book full of extraordinary allegations, which, as so often with the older of the King's brothers, can be divided into two broad categories: claims that are concerning and serious, and those that are slightly less concerning but further burnish his hard-earned and unimpeachable reputation for oafishness. • Jeffrey Epstein sold Prince Andrew's secrets, new book claims In his book the historian Andrew Lownie writes that Prince Andrew's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, which was the source of so many of his problems, may have been even more perilous than previously expected. The 'rattlesnake' Epstein sold Andrew's 'most intimate secrets' to foreign intelligence agencies, it is claimed. And Epstein is alleged by sources to have been an 'agent of influence' for President Putin. Lownie wrote: 'The Prince was a useful idiot who gave him respectability, access to political leaders and business opportunities. He found him easy to exploit.' Epstein died in his prison cell in New York in 2019 while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking offences, but the prospect that he had links to intelligence agencies who may not have the best interests of Andrew or the royal family at heart is not entirely reassuring. Rather less surprising are claims in the book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, that Andrew can be rude to staff. One painful vignette features a head of the household at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland reporting damage to a tree planted by Andrew's grandmother. He referred to her as the Queen Mother, rather than her full title, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. This ignited the fury of Andrew, who allegedly called him a 'f***ing imbecile' and ordered him out. • Prince Andrew, the King and the 'siege of Royal Lodge' Andrew turned 65 in February. If his parents' genes are anything to go by, he could be living the strange life of a semi-detached royal for decades to come. Last year The Times reported that, shorn of an official role, he spends long days at Royal Lodge watching television in a darkened room and venturing out on horseback into the Windsor estate's 40 hectares three times a week. Meanwhile, anxious courtiers wait for the duke's past to trigger its next unwelcome detonation. The day Andrew cannot escape is one back in 2001 when a camera captured him at the Belgravia home of Ghislaine Maxwell with his arm round the waist of young Virginia Giuffre. The photograph has been disputed and he claimed that he could not recall meeting her. But Giuffre, who said she was recruited as a masseuse for Epstein by Maxwell, claimed she was forced to have sex with the duke when she was a teenager. In 2022 he reportedly settled a lawsuit brought by her for £12 million without admitting liability. He had been forced to retreat from public long before that. His boneheaded refusal to express regret for his friendship with Epstein in his notorious 2019 interview with Emily Maitlis on Newsnight, and his failure to convincingly answer questions put to him about Giuffre, caused a public outcry and ended his royal career. His alibis included that he had been at Pizza Express in Woking on the night that it was claimed he danced with her at Tramp nightclub, and that he could not have sweated on the dancefloor, as was vividly claimed, because a peculiar medical condition meant he did not perspire. Within days it was announced that he was stepping back from public duties. When he attempted a comeback in 2021, Prince Charles headed him off, with a source saying 'a way back for the duke is demonstrably not possible' and that it was an unsolvable problem because 'the spectre of this [accusation] raises its head with hideous regularity'. Not one but two streaming service dramas about the Newsnight interview kept the Epstein mess firmly in the public eye in the UK and around the world. Then in April this year Giuffre's sad story ended in tragedy as she took her own life in Australia. • Prince Andrew 'called staff member an imbecile over Queen Mother' With Epstein and the conspiracy theories around him entangling President Trump, this is a miserable mire in which Andrew is stuck. Just last week his one-time friend Maxwell, for whom he once threw a birthday party at Sandringham with Epstein in attendance, was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas. She is serving 20 years for her role in Epstein's sex trafficking network but recently spoke to a top US Justice Department official about what she knows. One of her lawyers said they had not talked to the president about a pardon 'just yet'. Another big embarrassment for the royal family emerged last year when the prince was named as an associate of an alleged Chinese spy. A court named him as a confidant of Yang Tengbo, an alleged agent. During the case it emerged that a senior aide to Andrew had written to Yang, a Chinese businessman, telling him he was 'at the very top of a tree' of the duke's contacts. This prompted Stella Rimington, the former director of MI5, to wonder: 'Maybe he's just the weakest link.' The news led to him abandoning plans to join the King at the traditional family Christmas at Sandringham. The previous year he was invited to Sandringham with Sarah, the Duchess of York, his former wife, in a sign that they might be being gradually rehabilitated. His close family have stood by him, especially his former wife. In an intriguing arrangement they have continued to live under the same roof, despite divorcing in 1996. She has called him 'a great man' and in an interview with The Sunday Times about her experience of mental health problems with men she talked about caring for her late father. 'I was left to look after a sad man, which is sort of what I'm doing now,' she said, possibly referring to her relationship with Andrew. In an interview in The Times at the start of this year she talked about going to some 'dark places' after she had two forms of cancer diagnosed within months of each other. 'My family have been an immense support to me through this period. I've used meditation and mindfulness to help stay positive and balanced,' she said. • Sarah Ferguson: I will not let Andrew down Ferguson is said to have been regarded by the King as a helpful conduit to his brother during a period when relations between them have been strained, culminating in the 'siege of Royal Lodge'. The King had said he would cut his scandal-hit sibling off financially if he continued to stay in the 30-room home in Windsor Great Park, instead of moving to the more modest accommodation at Frogmore Cottage, the former home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Andrew has a lease on Royal Lodge, which the Queen Mother turned into a comfortable family home, until 2078, but Charles was no longer prepared to pay for his security. The home is outside the main Windsor security cordon. In a surprise development last year Andrew raised the funds to stay from legitimate sources. The duke's finances have long been a matter of speculation, including when it emerged that Ferguson once had a debt paid off by Epstein. It is known that he sold his former marital home, Sunninghill Park, a wedding present from Queen Elizabeth, for £15 million, £3 million above the asking price. He also sold a ski chalet in Switzerland in 2022. Andrew and 'Fergie' now have the welcome distraction of four grandchildren: Princess Beatrice's daughters Sienna, aged three, and Athena Mapelli Mozzi, six months, and Princess Eugenie's sons August, four, and Ernest Brooksbank, two. And at Easter he made a surprise appearance at the royal family's Easter service in St George's Chapel, Windsor. Sources have made it clear that he will still be welcome at such 'family events'. But minor indignities continue to be visited upon the prince. A school named after him on the island of St Helena was reported to be looking for a more 'neutral' name (will the title 'Duke of York' be retired once he relinquishes it?). Among the old anecdotes that continue to be thrown up, one that seemed especially absurd involved an employee being moved to other duties because the prince objected to him wearing a nylon tie. What then to do with a problem like Prince Andrew? The writer AN Wilson wondered in The Times last year if Andrew could not be sent to govern the Falkland Islands, where the one heroic episode of his life is recorded: piloting helicopters during the war against General Galtieri's invading forces. He quickly, regretfully answered his own question: 'It would be a neat solution but, given his extreme stupidity and his ability to attract dodgy friends, it would not be politically feasible to entrust him with such a role.' The King may dream of his brother being somewhere trouble can't find him, but at least when he's in Windsor he can keep a close eye on him and perhaps get an early warning when this never-ending saga next explodes back into life.
Times
39 minutes ago
- Times
How would Reform fix ‘lawless Britain'?
Every week is now crime week for Reform UK. As MPs have retreated to their constituencies over the summer to tend to grassroots campaigning, Nigel Farage is filling the void with a run of announcements on his new favourite theme: crime and the rising levels of antisocial behaviour. His pitch, bleakly entitled 'Britain is lawless', seeks to capitalise on general unease about rising criminality and a sense that offences are not being pursued or prosecuted with sufficient vigour. Mr Farage ramped up his rhetoric yesterday by calling for the ethnicity of suspects charged with rape and sexual assaults to be made public. Citing the wave of protests at hotels housing asylum seekers, he said there was 'rising public anger' over the issue. He also spoke of a 'cover-up', citing the controversy over Warwickshire police's decision not to release the immigration status of two men arrested for the alleged rape of a girl in Nuneaton. Reform's leader said the illegal asylum problem was no longer only about fairness for taxpayers but the 'safety of women and children'. Mr Farage has a point on data. It is troubling that there has been a five-fold increase in convictions in which ethnicity has not been recorded. Police may feel squeamish about publishing such data but failing to do so will encourage the belief, happily promoted by the far right, that there is something to hide. Neil O'Brien, the Conservative MP, has warned that this culture of secrecy also makes it harder to join the dots in tackling crime. Equal candour is needed in disclosing how many criminals have been born abroad and how many have entered illegally. Voters are entitled to know. As part of its push on crime Reform has appointed Vanessa Frake, a former prison governor, as the party's new adviser on criminal justice. Ms Frake promoted 'super-max' prisons, inspired by institutions in America for prisoners who are considered incapable of rehabilitation. She claimed these tougher institutions would 'restore law and order' and end the 'sorry tale' that is Britain's crumbling penal system. Yet, as is often the case within Reform, Ms Frake has found herself immediately at odds with the party's leadership. She believes, wrongly, there should be no blanket ban on trans women in female prisons, preferring for prisoners to be assessed individually. This fracas highlights a continuing problem within Reform. While it — or rather, Mr Farage — is adept at tapping into the public mood, fully thought-through solutions are lacking. In his understanding of public sentiment outside the Westminster bubble, Mr Farage has sensibly heeded the advice of Jonathan Swift: 'It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.' Mr Farage was one of the first to sound the alarm over small boats and on the mark when it came to the excesses of net zero. The same is true of his focus on tackling the likes of shoplifting and muggings. Crime is fertile territory for Reform. Both Conservative and Labour administrations have failed to concentrate sufficiently on combating crime, ignoring the public's deep disquiet about the issue. The problem is Mr Farage's persistent failure to equip rhetoric with costings. His plans to recruit 30,000 more police officers, send prisoners overseas and construct five new prisons are as yet unfunded but likely to cost some £17.4 billion. Mr Farage says Britain cannot afford not to act. Many will agree, but he needs to submit the invoice.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Urgent warning issued to people selling their identities online
There is a 'worrying trend' of people selling their own identities, a fraud prevention service has said. The selling of identities, often in the hope of financial reward, leaves people liable for loans or credit taken out in their name by criminals. Fraud prevention service Cifas, whose members include banking, retail, insurance, and telecoms bodies, said that more than 118,000 cases where identity fraud was suspected were recorded between January and June 2025. It said the ongoing threat is being exacerbated by AI (artificial intelligence)-enabled synthetic identities and fabricated profiles that can bypass security checks. It highlighted concerns that people are sometimes selling their own identities, typically on the promise of attractive financial opportunities. But by giving criminals access to legitimate credentials, Cifas is warning that people risk having debts built up by others in their name. Releasing its latest Fraudscape report, Cifas said that criminals are using advanced AI to create fake identities, forge documents, and bypass verification systems with 'alarming accuracy'. It said identity fraud risks have spread across various sectors, including false applications and identity theft in motor insurance; mobile account takeovers; and gambling-related identity fraud including criminals misusing the identities of people who have died. There has also been an increase in cases involving employees committing fraud against employers, Cifas said, with organisations reporting that more employees were concealing their background information to secure roles. Secret 'polygamous working' – where people hold multiple jobs or roles without their employer's knowledge or consent – as well as using fraudulent reference houses to cover employment gaps – are also a persistent threat to employers, Cifas said. Its Fraudscape report showed that, in total, more than 217,000 fraud risk cases were recorded to the National Fraud Database (NFD) by Cifas members from January to June 2025. Mike Haley, CEO of Cifas, said: 'Fraud is a national emergency – and AI has supercharged the threat, making it more sophisticated and harder to detect. No sector, business, or individual is immune. 'Tackling this fast-changing danger requires urgent, co-ordinated action through cross-sector collaboration and the sharing of data and intelligence. Only by working together can we stay ahead of the criminals and keep organisations and people safe from harm.'
