A convicted child sex offender who repeatedly breached a court order by using Facebook and Instagram on a Whitehaven Library computer has been given another prison sentence.
Keith Edward Skillen, now 59, received a community punishment in 2015 for an offence of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
Skillen was back in court twice in 2018, first receiving an eight-month jail term after being caught with indecent images of children; and then, in December that year, 24 months’ imprisonment for distributing indecent photographs of youngsters.
As part of that latter punishment, he was made subject to the strict terms of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) aimed at restricting his online access. One condition banned him from having items which were capable of accessing the intent.
But during 2021 he flouted the SHPO six times. After it emerged he had been accessing social media sites between early February and mid-April, he was arrested and bailed.
Police then made an unannounced visit to his home in September and recovered two Amazon Fire devices, in further breach. He was again arrested and bailed.
Then in the autumn, officers learned of concerns that Skillen had been accessing social media sites at Whitehaven Library. “He was arrested,” Kim Whittlestone, prosecuting, told Carlisle Crown Court today. “He was in possession of his library card.”
Skillen, who had been using Facebook and Instagram at the library on three separate dates, admitted the breaches and was sentenced by Judge Nicholas Barker. The court heard Skillen, of Brook Bank, Whitehaven, suffered a stroke in 2006, had communication problems, neurological damage and difficulty with impulse control.
His lawyer, Sean Harkin, said this left him isolated and seeking company online. Skillen had not viewed anything illegal during his latest unlawful online access.
Jailing Skillen for 16 months, Judge Barker said: “I consider that you used the Whitehaven Library computer for these purposes because you knew that your devices were being monitored at your home. That’s how the police came to realise you had accessed social media sites in February and April. In my view that is an aggravating feature.”
