A sex offender has been jailed for deleting the history on his phone.
Stephen Jones was given a chance to stay out of prison in 2020 when he was caught by paedophile hunters attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. As part of his sentence for that offence he got a sexual harm prevention order and one of the terms of it was a ban on deleting his internet history.
On May 11 this year, police went to his home to check up on him and asked to examine his devices. The 55-year-old, of Gladstone Street, Sunderland, handed over a phone, saying they would not find anything on it.
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When told there should be something on it, as he was banned from erasing it, he said: "You won't find anything, I wiped it. I like to wipe my phone." He was arrested and replied "S*** I'm going to prison."
As well as the conviction from 2020, he was also in court in September last year of failing to comply with his sex offender notification requirements after failing to notify a change of address. And in November he was convicted of a similar breach.
For the latest offence, he pleaded guilty to breaching his sexual harm prevention order and was jailed for 18 months. Judge Christopher Prince, at Newcastle Crown Court, told him: "You have got a concerning record in recent times. You are a high risk of sexual offences against children."
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