Paedophile who used Snapchat convicted

PAEDOPHILES can be banned from using Snapchat because of the phone app’s ability to delete images, a judge has ruled in a landmark case.

David King, 27, was convicted in Sept 2013 of sexual activity with a child and possessing indecent photographs and as part of his sentence was given a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) banning him from using a device incapable of displaying its internet history.

At Maidstone Crown Court in Kent yesterday he was convicted of breaking that order by using Snapchat, in the first ruling of its kind in the UK.

King, from Bexhill, Sussex, had originally denied breaching the SOPO, arguing that having the Snapchat app did not make his phone incapable of retaining an internet history.

He changed his plea to guilty yesterday after two experts gave evidence that material destroyed by Snapchat could only be viewed by using specialist forensic software. Judge David Griffith-jones QC said the social media app was popular “precisely because of its temporal features”.

He said: “Communications will be routinely destroyed automatically, leaving no, or no significant, trace. It’s precisely the kind of application which offenders such as yourself, subject to restrictions, should conscientiously avoid.” He gave King a 10-week jail term suspended for 12 months.