Registered Hartlepool sex offender contacted underage girls on Snapchat and deleted web history

Steven Roberts, 21, breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order nine times by having contact with girls aged between 13 and 15 on the popular social media platform.

The order was made for five years by magistrates in August 2021 following concerns about his sexualised behaviour, though he was not convicted of an offence.

One of the conditions was that Roberts was barred from contacting girls aged under 16 in any way.

But Teesside Crown Court heard that Roberts’ police offender manager discovered he had been in contact with a 13 or 14 year-old girl during a routine check on January 31 this year.

A look at his phone revealed eight further instances with other underage girls from November last year.

Roberts, previously of Derwent Street, Hartlepool, had used an alias unknown to the police and deleted his internet history, also in breach of the order.

He admitted the offences although Oliver Norman, mitigating, claimed the contact was not sexually motivated and Roberts had blocked the individuals.

Judge Jonathan Carroll said he found that “extremely difficult” to accept on the face of it.

Mr Norman said: “He now fully understands the consequences of such breaches and how serious they are.”

Judge Carroll said Roberts rode roughshod over the order designed to protect people and extended it for 10 years.

Roberts also admitted two assaults on emergency workers when he attended a hospital A&E on July 20 last year and lashed out at a head nurse and security worker.

He was jailed for 18 months.