A repeat child sex offender caught and detained by vigilantes in Carlisle after committing more concerning crimes has been jailed for almost three years.
David John Mawdsley, 46, was confronted on the city’s Lowther Street, on November 22, by an activist group seeking to bring paedophiles to justice.
Members made a citizens arrest having lured him to a meeting on the promise of sex with an adult female. They also posted video footage online and handed evidence to police.
Mawdsley was found to have made sexual advances – first on an online dating site before switching to WhatsApp using a fake name – to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl, and sent explicit pictures.
He also engaged in similar criminal contact with a second person he believed was a 14-year-old female. Both “girls” were activist group members.
Carlisle Crown Court heard Mawdsley had been jailed several times in the past elsewhere in the North West for earlier illegal child engagement offending after being snared by other vigilantes.
He was previously also made subject to the strict terms of a sexual harm prevention order, which banned him from having any contact or communication with females aged under 16.
He was sentenced by a Carlisle judge today for six new crimes he admitted: two of trying to incite a girl aged 13-15 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity; two of attempted sexual communication with a child; and two order breaches.
Mawdsley, latterly of Lowther Street, Carlisle, was jailed for a total of 32 months by Recorder Abigail Hudson, who also imposed an extended five-year licence period.
Noting he seemed to show “no sign of stopping” his criminal conduct, Recorder Hudson added: “I have no hesitation in concluding you are a dangerous offender.”
“Your pre-sentence report, Mr Mawdsley, causes me significant concern,” she told him.
“You appear to offer no insight into why you keep doing this. If you held no sexual interest in children, you would not keep chatting to them about sex.”
Recorder Hudson directed that the sexual harm prevention order should run until 2031, and that Mawdsley should sign the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
