A CONVICTED child sex offender has been jailed for more serious online criminal conduct.
In 2017, Michael Edward Roiston Chapman was brought to court and sentenced for engaging in “X-rated” internet chat with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl. It was actually an undercover police officer.
After admitting a raft of charges, Chapman, 24, was handed a lengthy community order, told to sign the sex offenders’ register and made subject to the strict terms of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).
But he was punished at Carlisle Crown Court today (FRI) after copycat offending was exposed by a vigilante group.
Chapman was said to have contacted someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl, before engaging them in graphic sexualised chat between April 1 and 7. As a result, he was confronted with evidence at his then home in Troutbeck, near Penrith, the vigilante group having live-streamed that encounter on the internet and called police.
Chapman admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and breaching the previously-imposed SHPO which prevented him contacting children online. At a previous hearing, a prosecutor said Chapman had “driven a coach and horses through that court order”.
Judge James Adkin this morning jailed Chapman for 18 months for his latest offending. “No harm was, in fact, caused to any child,” said Judge Adkin. But he added: “Your culpability was high.”
