A MAN with a “flagrant disregard” for the police and court orders who had previously been jailed for the rape of a nine-year-old girl has been put behind bars again.

Stephen Leslie Mertens, 68, of Dudley Gardens, Bournemouth, pleaded guilty to being in possession of four cartoon images depicting sexual activity involving children in May 2018.

He also admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order on August 12, 2021 by refusing to give the password to his phone to police, and failing to comply with the sex offender’s notification order requirement between June 24, 2019, and August 8, 2021.

He appeared for sentencing at Salisbury Crown Court on Wednesday, November 10.

Bournemouth Echo: Stephen Mertens was sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court

Prosecuting, David Richards told the court Mertens’ offender management officers visited his address and while there they checked his phone.

He said: “They found certain images from The Simpsons and other cartoons that had been manipulated to depict penetrative sexual acts.

“The other two offences speak for themselves. He signed on annually at Bournemouth police station on June 24, 2019, but thereafter failed to comply at any police station, as a result of which his whereabouts during that time was unknown.

“On August 12 he was arrested. Officers asked him for the password to his phone. His response was ‘Go away’.”

Mertens had 21 previous convictions from 103 offences, dating back to 1966. In 2004 he was convicted of two offences of rape from the 1980s.

He also had offences for distributing indecent images of children and was once in possession of more than one million images.

Mitigating, Kevin Hill said the harm of this offending was “towards the lower end of the scale” as there were no real children involved.

Judge Robert Pawson said the defendant had a “flagrant disregard” for police and court orders and sentenced him to 20 months imprisonment for the refusal to give his password and 10 months for failing to notify the authorities, to be served consecutively, making two and a half years. He was sentenced to six months for the indecent images, to be served concurrently.

The judge said: “You have an appalling record with a number of matters dealt with in the 1960s and 70s. It looked like you stopped offending in the 1980s. We all know you didn’t stop, you raped a nine-year-old. You were dealt with for that in 2004. At the same time, you were discovered to have one million indecent photographs of children.

“You put two fingers up to the system, spent two years moving around the country, driven by the desire to escape monitoring, potentially to allow more offending. You were asked to provide your password. We will never know what you were trying to protect.”

A forfeiture and destruction order was also made for the phone.

Judge Pawson added: “Given your antecedent history, one image would be enough to pass custody.”

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