Registered sex offender jailed for breaching sexual harm prevention order

A 23-year-old man has been sent to prison for 18 months for breaching the terms of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) after accessing the internet without permission and installing social media apps.

Between December 2022, and January 2023, Louis Davies engaged in an online conversation with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. This included exchanging explicit messages and sharing images of a sexual nature.

However, the “teenage girl” was in fact a decoy from an online activist group, and Davies was charged with attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause a child aged 13-15 to watch/look at an image of a sexual activity and attempt to cause/incite a girl 13-15 to engage in a sexual activity.

Davies, of The Crescent, Flore, was issued with his 10-year SHPO at Northampton Crown Court last year, along with a 16-month prison sentence, which was suspended for 24-months.

The SHPO was issued with certain conditions which he must abide by which included not using any computer or device capable of accessing the internet unless it has capacity to retain and display the browser history as well as notify police within three days of any online usernames.

During a routine visit on April 30 this year, officers from Northamptonshire Police’s MOSOVO team, which closely manage sexual and violent offenders, arrested Davies after he admitted breaching the conditions of his SHPO.

In his police interview, Davies admitted to installing, deleting, and then reinstalling various social media apps on his phone – including Snapchat, Tinder, and Instagram – on three or four occasions over a two-month period.

Davies was subsequently charged with seven counts of failing to comply with Sex Offenders’ Register notification requirements and one offence of breaching his SHPO.

On May 10, Davies appeared before Northampton Magistrates’ Court where his case was committed to Northampton Crown Court and on June 21, he pleaded guilty to all charges.

He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, which included 12-months for breaching his suspended sentence – and eight months for the new offences.

Lead investigator, PC Mark Edkins from the Force’s MOSOVO Team, said: “Louis Davies rightly, has very strict notification requirements he is expected to abide by, however, his actions clearly demonstrated a total disregard for the sanctions imposed by the court.

“We take an absolute zero-tolerance approach to situations like this, if a breach is identified, there are no second chances and I hope this case demonstrates how extremely serious we take the management of sex offenders.”