A registered sex offender is back behind bars for unlawfully sending text messages to a 15-year-old girl and illegal possession of an iPad Mini.
Darrel Stephen Carter, 31, was issued with a sexual risk order in 2020 at the request of police seeking to curb potential offending against young women.
The indefinite order bans Carter from contacting any girls aged under 18; and places tough restrictions on his access to electronic devices.
It was originally sought as Carter had been identified by police as posing a potential risk to vulnerable girls.
But being subject to the order has not kept him out of trouble.
For previous breaches Carter received a suspended prison sentence and he was later jailed for again failing to stick by the order’s terms.
It was following his release from custody on licence, halfway through a 23-month sentence, that he broke the law once more during the course of several weeks, Carlisle Crown Court heard today.
Despite knowing she was 15 and he was forbidden to do so, he contacted the girl on several occasions using different social network applications and online platforms, including Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
Carter also committed a second breach through his possession over many months of an iPad Mini — capable of accessing the internet — which was not declared to police as it should have been. This had been used to access Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok.
Carter, of Oakleigh Way, Carlisle, pleaded guilty to two breaches.
Judge Barker jailed Carter for 20 months. “You would have known, particularly having been released from a 23-month sentence that those who supervised you would have been concerned by your contact with such a young female,” said the judge, “that it was in breach of your order and that it would — had it been discovered — led to your arrest and potential imprisonment.
“Therefore there is, in my judgement, by you, an interest in taking what can be described as deliberate risk taking behaviour.”
The sexual risk order remains in force.
