June 2021
Barrow sex offender Ian Strickland failed to tell police about mobile phone A pervert has breached a court order designed to prevent him from offending for the third time. Ian William Strickland admitted that he breached a sexual harm prevention order imposed after he was previously jailed for a string of child sex offences. The 45-year-old was convicted of breaching the order when he appeared at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court. The court heard it was the third occasion that he broken the order. Magistrates were told that on June 8, Strickland was found in possession of a mobile phone capable of accessing the internet that he had failed to disclose to his offender manager. That put him in breach of the court order, which was handed down in 2019. The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge and is due to be sentenced at a crown court. Magistrates chose to remand Strickland in custody until he appears at Preston Crown to be sentenced. They said had ‘substantial grounds’ to believe he would commit further offences if he were bailed. Magistrates also took into account the number of times he had breached the order. The defendant, of Lesh Lane in Barrow, is due to appear at the court on August 9 to be sentenced. The order was imposed by in May, 2019, after Strickland tried to groom three children through video game Call of Duty. He was caught out when Microsoft passed his details to the police. Strickland was playing the Infinite Warfare edition of the X-box game when he started sexual conversations with two 12-year-old girls and a boy, 13. Preston Crown Court heard Strickland had spoken to one girl almost daily between February and April, 2018, telling her she was smart, beautiful and had a nice body. The schoolgirl said it was ‘kind of weird’ Strickland, who pretended to be 18, was sending these messages to a girl of 12. Between March and April, Strickland targeted another girl, also 12. He promised her massages and asked about her body, telling her: “If you come here it will be just you and me, babe.” Strickland’s third victim was a 13-year-old boy. The pervert asked him to visit him when he went to the area the boy lived in, telling him: “Maybe you can come to my B&B room rather than going to school.” Strickland first came to the attention of the police and courts when he was stung by a group of paedophile hunters in 2018. Police were called after the group, Dark Light, confronted and detained him at his home. He was given an 18-month jail term by the judge after pleading guilty to a string of child sex offences. The charges include one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and one count of attempting to meet a child under 16 after grooming. He was also convicted of one count of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child and one count of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child — no penetration. Strickland was released in February, 2019, with strict conditions he must inform police of any device capable of accessing the internet and make it available for on-the-spot checks. May 2019 Barrow paedophile who groomed teens on Call of Duty Xbox game spared jail A PAEDOPHILE who tried to groom three children through Call of Duty was caught out when Microsoft passed his details to the police. Ian Strickland, 43, was playing the Infinite Warfare edition of the X-box game when he started sexual conversations with two 12 year old girls and a boy, 13. Preston Crown Court heard hundreds of pages of chat logs were handed to police after Strickland was jailed for similar offences in July last year when he was caught by paedophile hunters Dark Light. The group confronted him at his home in Wordsworth Street, Barrow. David Traynor, prosecuting, told the court Strickland had spoken to one girl almost daily between February and April 2018, telling her she was smart, beautiful and had a nice body. He continued when the youngster disclosed she was bullied at school for having autism. Strickland even asked the girl how long her school skirt was and asked her to wear it when she came to visit him. The schoolgirl said it was “kind of weird” Strickland, who pretended to be 18, was sending these messages to a girl of 12. Between March and April, Strickland targeted another girl, also 12. He promised her massages and asked about her body, telling her: “If you come here it will be just you and me, babe.” The messages stopped when the girl’s brother confronted the online pervert asking him why he would send such messages to his sister. Strickland’s third victim was a 13 year old boy. The pervert asked him to visit him when he went to the area the boy lived in, telling him: “Maybe you can come to my B&B room rather than going to school.” A police officer who examined the digital evidence said audio files were also recovered in which the teen could clearly be heard telling Strickland, ‘No’. Following Strickland’s arrest, his mobile phone was seized and seven category C indecent images were found of children of South East Asian descent. The court heard these pictures had been sent to Strickland directly from their mothers, suggesting he was part of a larger group. He pleaded guilty to making indecent images and three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. Julie Taylor, defending, said the offences were committed before Strickland was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. Upon his release he breached the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order by contacting a child, but was caught out when the child returned home and told his mum Strickland had told him to keep their meeting secret. Judge Graham Knowles, sentencing, said: “Very shortly after I sentenced him, Microsoft contacted the police to say he had been using his X-box at an earlier period to have these chats. “It would have been perfectly open for this man to say before I sentenced him last time that in fact he had been using his X-box to have these offensive, indecent conversations and that the police would find in due course indecent images of children. “He could then have had a clean slate. “The conversations were for prolonged periods and were of a very nasty grooming kind. They continued when the defendant learned about the particular vulnerabilities of at least one girl. “The offender’s perverted sexual interest extends to boys as well as girls.” Since his previous sentence, Strickland has started to admit he committed the offences for sexual gratification. Judge Knowles said the public would better be served by him taking part in a rigorous program to treat sex offenders, given he has already served a prison sentence. He handed him a 12 month sentence suspended for two years, telling him: “You need to accept, because nobody else can, that you obviously have a perverted sexual interest in children. “There are people who can help you to understand and come to terms with that, and find ways to turn you from acting on this interest and towards doing something which keeps you out of prison.” April 2019 Barrow paedophile admits further offences after being released from jail A convicted paedophile who has already served one jail term for child sexual offences has pleaded guilty to a string of additional crimes against children. Ian William Strickland, from Barrow, was jailed last July caught by paedophile hunters Dark Light in May 2018. Police had been called after the group confronted him at his home in Wordsworth Street. Strickland pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, one count of attempting to meet a child under 16 after grooming, one count of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child and one count of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child – no penetration. His name will be on the sex offenders register for the next 10 years – the same length of time as the sexual offence prevention order also handed to him. After serving his sentence he was released on licence but was then charged with a further four offences relating to incidents between February and April of last year. At Preston Crown Court on Friday Strickland, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to communicating with a 12-year-old girl and trying to persuade her to meet him; communicating with a 13-year-old boy and trying to persuade him to meet him; communicating with a second 12-year-old girl and trying to persuade her to meet him; and having seven indecent photographs of children. The charges state the images were of children with a South East Asian appearance. Strickland, 43, will return to the court in June to be sentenced. June 2018 Barrow paedophile pleads guilty to string of child sex offence A pervert who was snared by paedophile hunters has admitted trying to engage a child in sexual activity. Ian William Strickland was confronted by online child protection team ‘Dark light’ outside his Wordsworth Street home on Monday May 21 after he had been communicating online with a girl he believed to be under 16. The 42-year-old was remanded in custody after appearing at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court and guilty pleas to four offences were entered at Preston Crown Court today (Friday). After Strickland was arrested and charged a brick was thrown through the downstairs window of a house in Wordsworth Street which later turned out to be an innocent resident’s home. Paedophile hunters Dark Light, who gathered evidence against Strickland, hit out at locals who broke the window “For those involved in smashing the windows of this house, you got the wrong house you morons,” they said in a Facebook post Police warned members of the public against vigilante attacks and said they would seek to prosecute anyone deemed to have committed a criminal offence. Strickland will return to Preston Crown Court on July 20 to be sentenced for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to meet a female child under 16 following grooming, and two counts of attempting to incite a girl to engage in sexual activity.