Six months’ jail for order breach



A sex offender prosecuted for flouting a court order designed to prevent him accessing the internet had been told he will face “longer and longer” jail terms if he carries on offending in same way.
Jonathan Lewis Fell, 22, was originally sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court in December 2018 for six crimes.
Three involved causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; one of publishing an obscene article; and two were crimes of downloading indecent photographs.
But the defendant, of Firth View Walk, Workington, landed himself in yet more trouble by keeping a secret mobile phone which was capable of accessing the internet, the court was told.
An earlier hearing was told that the illicit phone was discovered by chance as it vibrated in Fell’s pocket while he was being interviewed by a worker with Cumbria Probation Service.
This happened in Workington on February 24.
When the worker asked him about it, Fell initially tried to deny having the phone but then produced it, saying: “I shouldn’t have had the phone. It’s as simple as that.”
Passing a six-month jail sentence, Recorder Kathryn Pierpoint told Fell: “If you get yourself in any more trouble you know what will happen.
“You got four months last time [he breached his Sexual Harm Prevention Order]; it’s six months this time; and you will get longer and longer in prison.”
The defendant’s first breach of his sexual harm prevention order in May of last year consisted of him accepting an invitation to Sunday lunch which involved him effectively playing football with a child unsupervised.
Yet his sexual harm prevention order specifically forbids him from having any unsupervised access to a child.
The court heard that a psychological assessment had concluded that Fell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) yet he had been unable to engage in any form of discussion of what traumatic events may have occurred in his life.
Recorder Pierpoint told the defendant: “You have been convicted of serious sexual offences…
“It was a deliberate breach because you knew you should not have had the phone and you were trying to hide it from the probation officer and offender manager.”
She said the latest breach of the order was seriously aggravated by the previous breach.