The first person in England to be convicted of a cyberflashing offence has been jailed for 66 weeks.
Nicholas Hawkes was convicted under the Online Safety Act after cyberflashing became an offence in England and Wales on 31 January.
The 39-year-old, from Basildon in Essex, was already a convicted sex offender when he sent unsolicited images of his genitals to a 15-year-old girl and a woman on 9 February, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Southend crown court heard on Tuesday that Hawkes asked to use his father’s phone to call probation. He went into another room, where he sent the indecent photo via WhatsApp to a woman in her 60s. Minutes later, on the same device, he sent an explicit image to the child over iMessage, who was said to have been left “overwhelmed and crying”.
Both victims took screenshots of the messages and the woman reported him to Essex police the same day.
David Barr, prosecuting, said the offences “fall as part of an established pattern of behaviour of the defendant”.
Despite his previous offending, Hawkes has reportedly not received any treatment. Though he was offered 12 appointments with a psychiatrist, he never received them as the waiting list was too long, the court heard.
Hawkes admitted during an earlier hearing at Southend magistrates’ court to two counts of sending a photograph or film of genitals to cause alarm, distress or humiliation.
Cyberflashing can involve offenders sending people an unsolicited sexual image on social media, dating apps, or via Bluetooth or Airdrop. Victims of the offence and other image-based abuses receive lifelong anonymity under the Sexual Offences Act.
Hawkes was on the sex offender register after being convicted last year of sexual activity with a child under 16 and exposure, for which he received a community order.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to breaching the order and breaching a suspended sentence for another sexual offence.
He was jailed for 66 weeks and handed a restraining order for the woman and the girl lasting 10 years, and a sexual harm prevention order banning him from approaching women who he does not know on public highways and in parks for 15 years.
