Having console puts sex offender in jail
A CONVICTED child sex offender failed to notify police he had an internet-enabled video games console.
The ownership of the secret Playstation was the second time Shaun Smith had breached a court order designed to control his contact with children; the first saw him acquiring a mobile phone which he did not disclose to the authorities.
Sending the 56-year-old down, a judge told him he had to realise that orders of the court were serious and had to be complied with.
Swansea Crown Court heard that Smith was sent to prison and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order in 2018 for sending what he thought was a young girl on Facebook a series of sexual messages and demands for explicit photographs.
Sian Cutter, prosecuting, said that court order was still in force when, in September last year, police carried out a routine monitoring visit to the defendant’s house and spotted a Playstation games console which was linked to the internet. When challenged about the device, which had not been disclosed to the police, the defendant claimed he was unaware of the conditions of his court order.
In his subsequent interview he told officers he had had the device for around three weeks, and had “simply forgotten” to notify them about it.
Shaun Alan Smith, formerly of Merlin’s Bridge in Pembrokeshire but now of Glanafon, Ammanford, had previously pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
The court heard the Playstation incident was his second breach of the order; in September 2020 he was given a two-year community order with an unpaid work requirement after being caught with an unregistered mobile phone.
The SHPO was imposed in December 2018 after Smith sent “demanding and controlling” Facebook messages to someone he believed to be a schoolgirl, and then tried to meet up with her at a local burger bar. In reality the Facebook account was being operated by an adult.
During their online conversations Smith told what he thought was a 14-year-old girl that he was the same age as her father and “she was the sort of girl who could get a man into trouble”.
He also asked her whether she had lost her virginity and whether she was wearing knickers, and asked her to send intimate photographs. Smith also talked about meeting the girl, and on one occasion went to a Mcdonald’s restaurant and told his victim he was waiting for her. Sending the defendant to prison for 15 months on that occasion, the judge told him he had no doubt his aim had been to “take this girl’s virginity”.
Hannah George, for Smith, said the Playstation was a gaming console rather than a device ordinarily used for accessing social media platforms, and she said the defendant had been engaging with the Probation Service since his release from custody and his compliance with the order had been good.
Judge Geraint Walters told Smith that the SHPO was in place to reduce the risk of him re-offending, and it appeared the defendant was not taking his responsibilities under it seriously.
With credit for his guilty plea, Smith was sentenced to four months in prison for the Playstation breach, and the judge revoked the community order previously imposed for the phone breach and sentenced the defendant to two months consecutive for that matter, bringing the total sentence to six months.
Smith will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The SHPO remains in force.
Sending the defendant down, the judge told him that court orders had to be complied with.