Paedophile is granted permission to go online

Paedophile is granted permission to go online

19 August 2015

AN “incurable” Downpatrick paedophile has been given permission to once again access the Internet at home.

Sixty seven year-old Ian Patrick Magill is to be allowed to use the Internet at his Ballyhornan Road home for the first time since 2007 after the relaxation of a court order imposed to prevent him reoffending.

The permission was granted during a brief hearing at Downpatrick Crown Court on Monday when it was agreed Magill could go online on a desktop computer as long as he does not its history or use a webcam and makes the device available to police for inspection. He is still forbidden from using the Internet elsewhere.

The Internet ban was first imposed as part of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order in 2007 when Magill was jailed for two years and given two years on probation after he was caught in possession of more than 15,000 child abuse images, described by police as the “most horrific” they had ever seen.

At the time it had emerged that on a trip to Thailand, Magill had paid a mother £155 to take child abuse images of her four children.

Four years later, Magill was jailed for a further two years and eight months for breaching the order by hoodwinking police to travel to Bangkok.

The court heard that Magill had informed police of his intention to travel to Dublin, before going to an internet cafe to secretly book the flights to Thailand via London. 

He was flagged up as a sex offender on passing through the airport and police were waiting for him on his return where they seized a laptop which Magill warned would contain indecent images. He also admitted accessing the Internet to make his travel arrangements in breach of the order and failing to notify police of his intention to travel outside the UK.

Further “technical” breaches of the order included owning computer storage devices and being in possession of certain software, which related to his profession as a designer.

Magill, who first came to police attention in 1991 when he was convicted of taking indecent images of a child, also has convictions for smuggling child pornography in 1995.

He has previously admitted his perverted interest in female children began at the age of 12, when he was at boarding school in Dublin.

Magill, who was once described by a Judge as “incurable” for his deviant interest in young girls, was also due to go on trial in October last year for loitering around Newcastle Library and observing children.

However, he was found not guilty of this offence after prosecutors offered no evidence against him and told the court that Magill would instead be subject to a restraining order, barring him from going to libraries.