Hartlepool paedophile jailed again by Teesside Crown Court for breaching protection order
A paedophile with a “terrible” record has been locked up again after he broke the terms of a court protection order just days after being released from prison.
Gavin Thornton, 45, was jailed for 32 months last September for a number of offences including possessing indecent images of children and speaking sexually to an undercover police officer online.
He was released early on licence last month before just four days later breaching the conditions of a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The order was made by Teesside Crown Court to enable police to keep tabs on Thorton’s behaviour.
But during an unannounced home visit by police on April 10, officers discovered he had downloaded and deleted a video streaming app without the permission of his offender manager.
He had also used private internet browsers which prevented police from seeing his internet history.
Prosecutor Saba Shan said: “Acts of deleting apps and using private internet browsers which retain internet history make it all the more difficult to carry out risk assessments.”
Thornton, previously of Cameron Road, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Nigel Soppitt, mitigating, said there was nothing “sinister” about the breaches and put it down more to naivety and a “lack of concentration”.
Mr Soppitt added: “He understands he must go back into prison.”
Recorder Paul Reid told Thornton: “You have a terrible record. This was clearly an effort to circumvent the terms of this Sexual Harm Prevention Order.”
He was jailed for 14 months and his phone was ordered to be forfeited.