A child sex offender who failed to comply with registration conditions has been told he may not be jailed as it hasn’t worked before.


A child sex offender who failed to comply with registration conditions has been told he may not be jailed as it hasn’t worked before.
Michael Smith – who also uses the name King – again failed to correctly notify police where he was living after his release from prison for similar matters.
But after a judge at Swindon Crown Court noted that was his third time behind bars for the same thing he said it ‘doesn’t seem to be working’.
The 27-year-old was on early release when he again did not inform the authorities and also drove a silver BMW dangerously and without the owner’s consent.
He has now been recalled to prison for 28 days and hopes to try to line up somewhere to live so he can be sentenced in the community.
Smith, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the notification requirement for being a sex offender and aggravated taking without consent.
Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “This is his fourth similar offence. He has had custodial sentences for the last three.
“It is a matter for the sentencing judge but custody doesn’t seem to be working, but with no accommodation.”
Adjourning the case he told the defendant: “You know that you are facing a custodial sentence.
“Obviously it is important that you are represented.
“More important, it is important those who represent you have all the information they should have.
“It is hoped that by putting it back until after Christmas you might have information of accommodation by then.
“It is overwhelmingly likely it will be immediate custody.
“Until then you will be remanded in custody.”
Smith was initially spared jail in September 2014 after he admitted grooming and sexually assaulting a vulnerable 13-year-old girl he had met on Facebook.
But since then he had repeatedly lied to police about where he was living, on two occasions moving in with mums with young children.
Within days of being spared immediate custody he was misleading the authorities about where he was staying.
And last September he was jailed for 25 months after he again failed to notify the police of his correct address earlier in the year having just been spared custody.
In March 2017 he was again put on a suspended sentence for breaching the terms of the sex offender registration.
As a part of the order he has 72 hours to tell police of a change of address, and three days after his court appearance he told officers he was living with his stepdad.
But when they went to check in late June they were told that he hadn’t been seen him since the day he appeared in court.