December 2022

Convicted murderer and sex predator found with 1,600 indecent images and videos of kids

A convicted murderer and sex predator who was found with nearly 1,600 indecent images and videos of children has been returned to jail.

Former Doctor Michael McGrane, from Southport, was released and deported back to the UK in 2013 from Australia for sexual assault and murder.

The killer doctor who molested female patients in Australia and then murdered a seven months pregnant patient when she reported him for molesting her. 

Her badly-decomposed body was discovered at her flat in south Brisbane in January 1997 after he injected the student with morphine.

A court heard how the now 60-year-old downloaded the vile content over a one-year period.

Prosecutor Kenneth Grant said the defendant had been linked to the offences after an investigation by the police’s Online Child Abuse Investigation Team.

They traced an IP address suspected of sharing indecent images of children, to his home address on Victoria Street.

Officers went to McGrane’s home where 15 desktop computers, two mobile phones, a laptop, and 250 hard drive disks were seized.

Police found 1,585 category C images of children, including 208 prohibited images of children on the devices

Liverpool Crown Court heard how 600 of those were videos, and one was one hour long.

In his first interview on the day his electronics were seized, McGrane said to the best of his knowledge, there would be no indecent photos on the hard drives.

During his second interview on August 27, after all the electronics had been thoroughly examined by authorities, he claimed the devices were second hand.

In July 2003, he was also convicted of 13 offences, six of which involved the use of chloroform or some other stupefying drug to commit an indictable offence, and seven offences of indecent assault against adult females.

Following his release in 2013, he was deported back to the UK, where a sexual offences notification order was imposed upon him.

This meant he had to check in quarterly with authorities and inform police of any change of address, places he regularly stays, or plans to travel abroad.

On November 21, McGrane pleaded guilty to one count of making (downloading) indecent 1585 category C photographs of children, between June 10 2019 and 12 June 2020, and to possession of 208 prohibited images of children on June 11 2020

He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for both counts, and a sexual harm prevention order was also implemented for ten years, alongside the requirement that he be on the sex offenders list.

Items related to the offence were also ordered to be destroyed, and a deprivation order prohibiting him from using any device capable of accessing the internet unless he informs the police was also implemented