JOSHUA CHECKSFIELD JAIL IN STOKE-ON-TRENT FOR BREACH OF SEXUAL HARM PREVENTION ORDER
Joshua Checksfield, a 19-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent, has been sentenced to 30 months in a young offenders' institution after he breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).The order, issued in December 2020, was meant to prevent him from contacting children under 16.
Checksfield had previously received a three-year community order and an SHPO following a conviction for causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.
Prosecutor John Oates informed Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court that Checksfield violated the SHPO by making contact with a 15-year-old girl and installing software to use Snapchat, which was prohibited under the order.
Mr.
Oates stated, "She took the phone off her and formed the opinion somebody had been trying to groom her daughter.
A check of the phone showed the defendant had contacted her daughter on a number of occasions." Checksfield, who has no fixed address, used two phones—one unregistered with police—to communicate.
The girl told him she was 15, but he insisted he believed she was 17.
Messages exchanged between them contained sexual implications; he spoke about love, called her kinky, and discussed traveling to Manchester to meet her.
The matter was reported to the police after the mother of the girl discovered the conversations.
Checksfield pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching the SHPO.
Stuart Muldoon, representing the defendant, noted that Checksfield had spent five months in custody and acknowledged his sexual attraction to females aged 15 and above.
Mr.
Muldoon stated, "He is going to take whatever steps he can to ensure he doesn't return to custody." Judge Paul Glenn revoked the original community order from December 2020 and re-sentenced Checksfield, citing the seriousness of his breaches.
The judge told him, "You contacted a 15-year-old girl on a persistent basis over seven weeks.
You gave a false name and lied about your own age.
She told you she was 15, yet you were not deterred.
You are devious.
You visited the child three times in Manchester in July.
You used Snapchat by using a web browser rather than an app to avoid detection.
You were thinking quite clearly.
The risk of you re-offending is high.
These offences are so serious it has to be an immediate custodial sentence." Based on these circumstances, the court sentenced Checksfield to 30 months detention.
