Hartlepool sex offender tried to hide phone from police which revealed social media false names

Ian Laing, 47, of Hartlepool, was given a suspended prison sentence and made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) in 2017 for online grooming of a vulnerable teenage boy on Facebook and Snapchat.

The SHPO prohibits him owning any device capable of accessing the internet unless he shows it to police on demand.

He was also put on the sex offenders’ register for seven years which requires him to tell the police about any changes in his personal circumstances.

But on June 16, two police officers from the Sex Offenders Management Unit saw him using a gold coloured Android mobile phone through the window of his house.

Harry Hadfield, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said: “One of the officers asked where the mobile phone was and he denied having such a device.

"After a number of requests to produce the mobile phone the defendant walked into the kitchen and removed it.

"It was concealed in a cabinet.”

An examination of the phone showed he had used at least four aliases on social media platforms.

Mr Hadfield added: "Extracted data from the phone shows that the defendant may have used other names and aliases.”

Laing admitted breaching the Sexual Harm Prevention Order and failing to comply with the sex offender notification requirements.

Martin Scarborough, mitigating, said Laing suffered from learning difficulties and was eligible for a new probation programme designed to prevent further offending.

He said: “These are his first breaches some three years after the making of that order.”

Mr Scraborough also said Laing, of Stockton Road, Hartlepool, handed the phone over in minutes and said there was no evidence he had used the phone to contact any children.

Judge Stephen Ashurst said the offences deserved a prison sentence but stepped back due to Laing's guilty pleas and because he spent two months in Durham Prison on remand.

"I think you have realised what the consequences are of not complying with this court order,” he said.

Laing was given a two-year community order with probation.

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