A convicted sex offender who went illegally “off the radar” for a month has been handed a lengthy jail term for his 12th breach of a court order.
Mark King, now 49, was made subject to sex offender registration requirements by a judge in 2012. That was part of his punishment for an offence of exposure. It means that upon his release from any prison sentence, until February 2022, King must declare a fixed address; or, if homeless, must notify police of that fact within a specified time.
But in recent years, homeless King has committed a host of breaches in different areas of the UK and received jail terms which have increased in length.
In 2018, King was jailed for a breach that came to light after he was found sleeping rough in a Penrith park. The following year he was handed a 28-month sentence in the Midlands. And at Carlisle Crown Court today he was imprisoned again for a breach that occurred after contact was lost with him during October.
“He was released from police custody in relation to a seven-day remand for theft and breach of order,” prosecutor Tim Evans told the court. “He was given £50. He indicated he was going to travel to Birmingham. He didn’t in fact get there. In effect, he simply slipped off the radar until the end of October when he was arrested.”
King admitted flouting notification requirements and was sentenced by Judge Simon Medland QC, who noted it was his 12th such breach in less than a decade.
Judge Medland jailed King for 30 months, seeing “no alternative” to a lengthy prison term and telling the defendant: “It just doesn’t seem to get through to you that the courts must take this seriously.”
