back to article Ex-army sergeant pleads guilty to using private browsing mode

A disgraced former Territorial Army sergeant convicted of making indecent images of children has pleaded guilty to using private browsing mode on his iPhone and iPad. Paul Martin McGarrity, a 56-year-old of Mirabel House, Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham, appeared at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court this morning to be sentenced, …

  1. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    Pondering ...

    Once again the arms race between tech and law continues ...

    Obviously the law can make back white, it it wants to. Whether real life complies is another matter.

    I'm vaguely wondering if there would be ways of complying with the order, whilst at the same time not allowing plod to trawl the history. Maybe a (US) cloudy lashup ?

    I have very little desire to see any genuine threat to other people go free, or escape punishment. But on the other hand I don't particularly like the "think of the children" hysteria which is slowly pissing away our rights. We will miss them when they are gone.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Pondering ...

      I have very little desire to see any genuine threat to other people go free, or escape punishment. But on the other hand I don't particularly like the "think of the children" hysteria which is slowly pissing away our rights. We will miss them when they are gone.

      Therein lies the problem... Our rights already being stomped on over "terrorism" in addition to the "think of the children" and anything else that can used as a reason. Then we have a populace in just about every country, who for the most part, seem to be into protecting some rights very vocally and are quiet on the others such as privacy. They seem to prefer security over freedoms and rights.

      Where will the line end up being drawn? I fear that we are way beyond any reasonable line at this point and trying to move it back will be impossible.

    2. Mark 65

      Re: Pondering ...

      @Jimmy: Therein lies the secret of politics - use the emotions and not the facts. If you can make your argument an emotive, heart string tugging tagline of simplistic points then you'll always win in the court of Z-list celebrity politics that envelopes most of the electorate. Fact-based complex arguments are understood by too few, so why bother?

  2. Simon Harris

    Private browsing

    Maybe he thought it was for checking out the lower ranks.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Gimp

      Re: Private browsing

      ..or for checking the lower ranks' lower ranks?

      :O

  3. JassMan
    WTF?

    Since when has it been illegal to use private browsing in the UK?

    The merkin courts abuse the Sarbane-Oxley law to add extra charges for "destruction of evidence" but is there an equivalent law in the UK?

    Next they will be throwing you in prison just for setting a limit to the cache size because you are running out of disk space. What happens when you really have run out of space? Do you have to transfer your old cache to your new disk so that the plod can see everything you ever viewed since the internet began?

    1. MrDamage Silver badge

      Re: Since when has it been illegal to use private browsing in the UK?

      Read the third paragraph. It was part of the SOPO put against him in 2011.

    2. Steve Knox
      Holmes

      Re: Since when has it been illegal to use private browsing in the UK?

      It is illegal for this one individual due to an order from a previous court martial for making an indecent photograph of a child.

      This is from paragraphs 3 and 4 of the article. How much of it did you even read?

    3. Richard 26

      Re: Since when has it been illegal to use private browsing in the UK?

      Sigh, it's all there in the article with links and everything; he had the restrictions imposed after an earlier conviction. SOPOs can be a bit heavy handed at times - it's hard to say in this case without knowing the unpleasant details of the original offence. Some restrictions on your liberty as a convicted sex offender aren't unreasonable in general though.

  4. MachDiamond Silver badge

    1k cache

    Set up a hot key that loads a stack of benign web sites and that 1k of cache shows nothing.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Attire

    Shaven-headed McGarrity, wearing a plain grey t-shirt with a small Union Flag at the back of the neck and blue Adidas tracksuit bottoms, leaned on the rail of the dock as his solicitor made his plea in mitigation to the judge.

    What the defendant was wearing in court is hardly newsworthy.

    1. Fink-Nottle

      Re: Attire

      I'd say his clothing is newsworthy as it reflects his attitude to the court.

      As an ex-military man, he would be aware of the importance authority places on spit 'n polish as well as general demeanour. Wearing formal clothing and standing upright in the dock could influence the judge when it comes to sentencing.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Other records?

    But aren't all IS providers obliged to keep records of all of your connections and searches for the convenience of the plods? Or is that just in EastAsia and Australia?

    Or isn't it up and running yet?

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Other records?

      Not at the moment. Only GCHQ are logging your actions atm.

  7. Aqua Marina

    So my take on this, is that he is guilty of not understanding that private browsing is enabled by default nowdays, probably not understanding what it is, and of not having the technical skills to turn the default setting to off. Sounds like most of the people coming to me for support on a daily basis. Lock them up too!

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Sergeant in the TA, Signals Corp, is or was on full time attachment to regular Signal Corps. He really ought to have some basic knowledge of IT as a middle manager in a comms divisions. Bear in mind you do not get recruited as a sergeant/middle manager in the army, you have to work your way up.

  8. DrXym

    Abuse of private browsing mode

    The only reason private browsing mode even exists is so you can surprise your wife by ordering her flowers.

    1. ElectricFox
      Coat

      Re: Abuse of private browsing mode

      "Surprise your wife...

      ...by ordering her flowers"

      Did you spend long adjusting that sentence to get the line break in that place? Or is it just how my browser displays the text in private mode?

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