A LONG-running police investigation has resulted in a man being imprisoned for four-and-half years for offences relating to indecent images of children.

Richard Goundry, aged 38, was sentenced at York Crown Court on Thursday (14 November 2019) after previously pleading guilty.

He will be subject to a four-year extended licence when released from prison.

Goundry, of Gledhill Drive, Whitby, was already a registered sex offender when he moved to the town in March 2016. He had previously been convicted for making indecent images of in Middlesbrough in 2015 and in Sunderland in 2005.

Between January and March 2017, North Yorkshire Police acted on intelligence that indecent images of children offences - as well as an attempt to arrange or facilitate a child sex offence - were connected to the IP address at Goundry’s home in Whitby.

While this two-year Public Protection Unit investigation was ongoing, officers from the Digital Investigation and Intelligence team detected that Goundry was responsible for making hundreds of indecent images in June 2019.

He was immediately remanded in custody to protect the public and to prevent further offending while the two strands of the investigation continued.

Goundry was subsequently charged and convicted for a range of offences including two counts of distributing indecent images of children; six counts of making indecent images of children – this consisted of just under 2,000 images covering categories A, B and C; two counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order; failing to comply with notification requests from the sex offenders’ register; and attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence.

Detective Constable Graeme Boast, of the Digital Investigation and Intelligence team, said: “The outcome at court is very pleasing and puts another serious offender behind bars where he cannot pose a danger to the public.

“This was a complex digital investigation supported by specialist staff from the Digital Forensic Unit and an analyst who had to carefully examine a high-volume of material that had been recovered during the inquiry.

“This is painstaking work but this case demonstrates the expertise North Yorkshire Police has at its disposal to secure such convictions.

“As a registered sex offender, Richard Goundry was closely monitored by the police and other public protection agencies. This enabled us to catch him again, minimise any risk to the wider public, and ultimately bring him to justice.”