January 2017 Registered sex offender jailed after messaging girl, 13 A two time convicted sex offender from Letchworth has been jailed for 52 weeks after he admitted messaging a 13-year-old girl while months into a suspended sentence for possession of child sexual abuse images offences and making children watch pornography for his own sexual gratification. Shaun Frankland, 26, messaged the schoolgirl through the image messaging app Snapchat on November 25 – in breach of a sexual harm prevention order restricting his use of the internet. And after the girl’s parents messaged him back, pretending to be another 13-year-old girl, Frankland told them he was masturbating. Frankland, of Chiltern View, pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order when he appeared at Cambridge Crown Court. The girl’s father said that Frankland, a stranger to the family, had sent her messages over Snapchat out of the blue, claiming to be 21, and asked if it would be OK to chat after she said she was only 13. “Luckily my daughter was clever enough to say no,” the dad said. “Something didn’t add up, so my partner added him on her Snapchat, and again he asked the same questions – it was like they were preset questions he asks everyone. “Again we said we were 13 to see how he would speak to us – and after only a few minutes he was messaging us saying he was masturbating.” The girl’s parents quickly identified Frankland after an online search using his Snapchat username, and were horrified by what they found. Frankland had been handed a 20-week prison term, suspended for 24 months, in July after he admitted committing child sexual abuse images offences while already on the sex offenders register – making and possessing indecent photographs of children, and having them watch pornography for his own sexual gratification. A sexual harm prevention order was also imposed for those offences, among other things preventing Frankland from concealing history of his internet usage. The Snapchat app deletes messages and photos shortly after they are read. “Despite all this,” the dad said, “he was still sending inappropriate messages to underage girls. “When I first got told about him getting into contact with my daughter, I wasn’t too concerned – that’s the day and age we are in. The technology we have, anybody can contact anyone and 99 per cent of the time it is safe, a normal way of making friends. “But then the messages started to get suspicious, which got me concerned and made me investigate. When I found out his name and subsequently his previous convictions I was shaking with anger. How can someone with restrictions on internet usage so easily contact a child?” Recorder David Farrell QC sentenced Frankland to 34 weeks’ imprisonment for the three breaches, and activated most of the suspended sentence to add another 18 weeks. July 2016 Convicted sex offender who forced children to watch pornography given suspended sentence A 26-year-old man from Letchworth has been handed a suspended sentence after he admitted committing child sexual abuse images offences while already on the sex offenders register. Stevenage magistrates heard that Shaun Frankland, of Chiltern View, made and possessed indecent photographs of children and made them watch pornography for his own sexual gratification. Chairman of the bench Stephen Bubb gave him a 20-week prison term, suspended for 24 months, because of Frankland’s ‘disregard for the psychological, emotional harm caused to the victims’. Frankland admitted one charge of possessing and three charges of making indecent photographs of children, one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child, and three counts of intentionally causing children under 16 to look at pornographic images, when he appeared at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court on July 13. In addition to the suspended sentence Mr Bubb ordered Frankland to attend a sex offender treatment programme for 60 sessions, and imposed a seven-year notification requirement. Frankland, who had already been on the sex offenders register for two years before these offences were committed in 2015, must also pay an £80 victim surcharge and £85 in costs. The prosecution is set to apply for the imposition of a sexual harm prevention order – which would limit his use of the internet – at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court on August 4.