Man convicted of terrorism offences jailed for breaching conditions

A man who was previously convicted of terrorism offences has been jailed after breaching the conditions imposed on him.

Harry Blake has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison after Met Counter Terrorism Command officers discovered he owned a mobile phone and memory card he had not notified police of, as he was legally required to.

Blake pleaded guilty to 14 terrorism offences relating to extreme right wing terrorism and two child abuse image offences in September 2020. For these offences, he received a suspended jail sentence, a ten-year terrorist offender notification order; and was ordered to attend a number of programmes including for deradicalisation.

Blake was also given a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO), which imposed a range of restrictions on his computer use. One of those restrictions prohibited him from using any device that could access the internet unless he had notified the Met Police.

Blake was stopped at Gatwick Airport on 7 August 2022 by counter terrorism officers under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and the phone and memory card were seized and sent to specialist digital forensic officers for examination. It was discovered that the devices contained extreme pornography and indecent images of children.

Blake was subsequently arrested on 15 September 2022 and charged in relation to the breach of conditions and criminal images.

Blake was sentenced to three years and two months at the Old Bailey on Thursday 3 August 2023.

He later pleaded guilty to three counts of a notification offence, contrary to section 54 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008; three counts of failing to comply with an order, contrary to section 25 of the Serious Crime Act 2007; three counts of possession of extreme pornography and one count of possession of indecent images of children.

Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Rees of the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Blake had been convicted of offences relating to sharing extremist content online, so restrictions were imposed to curb his access to computer systems. His breach of these conditions was extremely serious. Not only had he breached the conditions, but we uncovered that he had also been storing child abuse images.

“I hope this case sends the message that we closely monitor people who are under terrorism notification and crime prevention orders, and that we will bring them back to court where we’ve found they’ve broken those conditions.”

Image by Kev from Pixabay