Hartlepool pervert jailed after flouting internet phone ban

Michael Wilson, 39, a sex offender from Hartlepool, was being monitored by police when they found that he had deleted 137 items of web history, 39 chats and 16 call logs.

He had been convicted at Sheffield Crown Court in September 2020 of two offences of attempted sexual communication with a child and was given a suspended jail term.

He was also banned from using any device capable of accessing the internet.

On March 9 last year officers went to his home and found that he had deleted his phone’s history, said prosecutor Emma Atkinson at Teesside Crown Court.

She added: ”The Crown say that that it was certainly deliberate.

”It was very serious and premeditated and there was a risk of very serious harm or distress.”

Neil Jones, defending, said that Wilson had been honest with police, adding: ”He was letting them look at his phone and around his house.”

Mr Jones said there was no evidence of harm and that it was a case where the judge could suspend the sentence.

But Judge Jonathan Carroll told Wilson: “You were having chats of a sexual nature and deleting them.

”It cannot be suspended when you were already subject to a suspended sentence for sexual offending.”

Wilson, of Dent Street, was jailed for 18 months, including the previously suspended 12-month sentence, after he pleaded guilty to breaching the Sexual Harm Supervision Order.

He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years

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