A registered sex offender is back behind bars after failing to tell police he had an internet-accessible phone — and set up a Snapchat account — just after his release from custody.
Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard that Joshua Watson, now 24, is deemed a dangerous criminal by both police and the Crown Prosecution Service in view of repeated illegal child-related activity.
Watson was sentenced by a Carlisle judge last year for possessing indecent images of children including 10 classed in category A, the most serious.
As part of his punishment he was made subject to the strict terms of both a sexual harm prevention order and notification requirements. These place restrictions on Watson’s online use and mean he must keep police aware of specified activities within three days.
But yesterday police visited Watson at approved hostel premises and found him lying awake in bed next to an internet-capable mobile phone.
Claims it had been bought for him by a relative the previous the day were rubbished by an inspection which revealed he had acquired it earlier than that. Analysis also revealed he had created a Snapchat account. Neither the phone nor social media account had been declared to police within the specified three-day timeframe.
And at the city’s magistrates’ court today he admitted failing to comply with the SHPO and notification requirements – offences he committed shortly after he was released from prison.
Prosecutor Andy Travis said these breaches had been deliberate. Watson, he told the court, had also committed offences in Scotland having bought two teenage girls aged under 18 alcohol and made sexual suggestions to them.
Sentencing at Ayr Sheriff Court for that offending has been deferred after guilty pleas were entered in August.
Mr Travis said: “The police take the view, as do the crown, that he is dangerous.”
Lauren Heasley, defending, said Watson was realistic that he faced another jail term.
The district judge, John Temperley, concluded his sentencing powers for the two breaches were insufficient. He sent the case to Carlisle Crown Court where Watson, formerly of the city’s Beaumont Road, will be punished in due course. In the meantime he remains in custody having been recalled on licence.
