A convicted sex offender from south Essex was back in court this week after he was caught breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
David Williams, 62, of Kingfisher Crescent in Rayleigh, received a suspended sentence at Basildon Crown Court in 2022 after being convicted of causing a child under 13 to watch a sexual act.
He was made subject to a ten-year SHPO which placed strict restrictions on his use of computers and other devices capable of searching the internet.
When Essex Police carried out a spot check at his address on Sunday (April 19), they discovered he had downloaded and then deleted a messaging app called Telegram from his Samsung Galaxy mobile phone without notifying or seeking permission from monitoring officers.
He appeared in the dock at Southend Magistrates' Court on Monday (April 20), where he pleaded guilty to breaching his SHPO.
He also pleaded guilty to three breaches of sex offender notification requirements, each relating to different credit cards he had obtained and failed to notify police of.
Prosecutor Erin Peck contended the SHPO breach was clearly "deliberate" and carried a sentencing starting point of one year's custody, while each of the three credit card offences had a starting point of 36 weeks.
Duty solicitor Simon Diable said: "He is three years into this SHPO and this is his first breach."
He said the app had been deleted "just to free up space on the phone because it was barely used".
Of the three new credit cards, he said Williams has been employed as a site assistant manager for a motor vehicle company in Upminster for 22 years, but got himself into around £5,000 debt and was "trying to keep this away from his wife".
"Once he realised that he should have notified the police about them but hadn't, it was kind of too late and he didn't really know what to do," the lawyer added.
District Judge Robert Borwick asked the probation service to interview Williams for a pre-sentence report, with the next court hearing scheduled in June.
"Mr Williams, you have pleaded guilty to four offences and I have to say to you, they are serious offences.
"At this stage, all options are open for sentence, including committal to the crown court."
In the meantime, he was released on unconditional bail.
