Sexual predator from Hartlepool jailed after he struck again two days after being released from prison

Brandon Swinney, 21, from Hartlepool, was caught using Facebook under an alias to contact a schoolgirl he had lured into sex years before.

Swinney had just completed a 30-month jail sentence for sexual offences against another teenage girl and he was living in a bail hostel in South Bank, Middlesbrough.

A manager monitoring his behaviour found that he had been using social media to contact a 15 year old girl, which was he banned by a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Swinney, also known as Healer, tried to get the girl to send sexual photographs to him, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor Richard Bennett said the vulnerable girl had agreed to meet Swinney in a park.

When he arrived he smelled of drink and he pushed her up against a fence and he had sex with her.

The girl said in a victim impact statement that Swinney was a sexual predator who told her that he loved her, but she realised that he only wanted her for sex.

She said: ”I don’t think I would be able to trust a lad again.

“I am so glad that the police have intervened and stopped us from meeting. I hope it has stopped him from doing it to other girls.”

Swinney was living in Burbank Street, Hartlepool, when he was jailed in July 2015 and described as “rootless” as he moved around in pursuit of girls.

He was released in September 2016.

Stephen Constantine, defending, said that Swinney had not breached the order in the past two years.

His family were living in the Peterlee area, but on his release from prison he had been put in hostels in South Bank and Newcastle.

Mr Constantine told the judge: "There has got to be a custodial sentence and the question is how long.

“There is work that needs to be done and he is willing to comply.”

Swinney, of Westmorland Road, Newcastle, who appeared over a videolink from Durham Prison, was jailed for three years and given an indefinite Sexual Offence’s Prevention Order restricting his contact with under-age girls after he pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child and breaching the earlier order.

He will be on the Sex Offender’s Register for life.