Mum’s date from app was sex offender

A MUM thought she’d found love on a dating app – but he was a convicted rapist and child sex offender.

When the woman met Mark Davison on Badoo, they got on well and started a relationship.

A court heard he spent time with her two young girls, although he wasn’t left unsupervised.

Davison had told the woman “in broad terms” that he was subject to an order relating to sex offences but failed to mention he had convictions for rape and having sexual activity with a child on his record.

The court heard Davison had been convicted of rape of a child under 16 in 2004, although he would have been a youth himself at the time and he got a referral order.

In 2011 he was jailed for three years for two offences of sexual activity with a female child and was made subject to a sexual offences prevention order indefinitely.

Then in July 2017 he was convicted of breaching the sexual offences prevention order and was given 14 months prison for having unsupervised contact with a child.

Now the 31-year-old, of Rosalind Street, Ashington, has been jailed for breaching his sexual offences prevention order by having contact with the children and failing to comply with his sex offender registration by staying at the family’s home without registering it with police, in July and August.

Jailing him for 22 months, Judge Stephen Earl said the order and requirement breached by Davison are in place “to protect the most vulnerable in our society from predatory behaviour”.

He added: “These orders are meant to protect children from sexual predators. The defendant falls into that group by virtue of his 2011 conviction.

“He visited her home when she didn’t know the risk he poses and had her visit his home when she didn’t know the risk he posed. This is about risk management and people are entitled to make decisions

Mark Davison themselves. In relation to a sexual predator with children in the past, a person is entitled to make that decision with regard to the facts. He took that decision out of her hands for his own selfish reasons.”

Newcastle Crown Court heard the woman’s two youngest children were living with her when she met Davison on Badoo in July and a relationship developed.

Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said: “She confirmed in her witness statement that during the relationship he had disclosed to her he had a criminal record but didn’t fully disclose all the previous convictions he had for sexual offences.

“During the relationship she had with him he stayed overnight at her home five times and on each occasion the defendant stayed at her address, her two daughters had been present in the address.

“When not staying over he had visited her home on multiple occasions when the two daughters were present.

“She also said she and the defendant had taken the two girls on days out, for walks and to the park. She said he had never been with them without her being there, he never had unsupervised access to them.”

The woman had also taken the girls to Davison’s home twice and they had slept over, the children sleeping in his bed while he and she slept on the sofa.

When Davison was arrested, he claimed to have tried to contact his supervising officer about staying at the woman’s home and said his phone had gone to voicemail, although he did not leave a message.

Stuart Graham, mitigating, said: “He recognises the seriousness of it but at the same time what he did was completely stupid. The reality is if he had explained everything, he knows he would never have any contact and he really did like the complainant and wanted to be with her. He apologises, he is very sorry for the distress he caused through his desperation and he knows he must face his punishment.”