Latest Offenders Worthing

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A man who was jailed for sexual offences against a young girl has been imprisoned again after he was found to be in contact with single mother with young daughters. Stephen Agate, 37, unemployed, of Wordsworth Road, Worthing, was sentenced to three years prison at Lewes Crown Court on Tuesday, April 24, having previously pleaded guilty to breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) severely restricting any unsupervised or agreed access to young children, and to breaching a lifelong requirement to notify his address to police as a Registered Sex Offender. Police found that Agate was associating in Worthing with a single mother who had young daughters within four months of being released from prison on supervision licence. He had previously been sentenced to four years imprisonment in July 2015 after pleading guilty to causing an eight-year old girl known to him to engage in sexual activity. He was then living in Burgess Hill and visited the girl's home nearby in the town, where he knew the family and committed sexual offences against her on several occasions when he contrived to be alone with her. When he was sentenced in In July 2015 he was also given the SHPO to last indefinitely, was made a Registered Sex Offender for life. PC Matt Andrews of the West Sussex VISOR (Violent and Sexual Offender) Unit, said: "Agate was released from prison on licence in July last year and stayed a Probation-approved address in Worthing. "In November he met the mother locally and struck up a relationship with her, resulting in his starting to stay at her address. "But his unexplained absence from his approved address was noticed and swiftly followed up and our enquiries led us to where he was staying within a few days. "He was immediately arrested and returned to prison as well as being charged with these extra offences. "The mother had no idea of his criminal history which involved preying on a young girl he had befriended in very similar circumstances. "This investigation, in which we worked with the National Probation Service, shows how action is taken to supervise sexual offenders in the community and to safeguard the public, especiallly vulnerable adults and children."