Description
A serial sex offender who was obsessed with chatting online to teenage girls has finally been jailed after brazenly ignoring suspended prison sentences.
Three-times-married Alun Friend had an "addiction to these chat lines" and had an "inherent weakness" in him for the seedy internet encounters. He bought a laptop to use for starting online chats with young girls just a few days after being released from a spell in custody, Hull Crown Court heard.
Friend, 59, of Alfred Street, Hull, admitted two offences of attempting to breach a sexual harm prevention order between May 10 and 12.
Emma Hughes, prosecuting, said that Friend was a registered sex offender and he had been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence at Grimsby Crown Court in 2016 for attempting to meet a girl under 16 following sexual grooming. He had been given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order that day and had to register indefinitely as a sex offender.
Friend had also been given a six-month suspended prison sentence in July 2020 for breaching the orders. He was also given a two-year suspended prison sentence and a seven-year sexual harm prevention order at Teesside Crown Court in April last year for attempting to meet a child under 16.
Friend was released at the time from a spell in custody but had no family support and bought a laptop within days.
The latest offences came to light when Friend started talking online to two fake teenage girls aged 13, supposedly from Derby and Lincoln, who were really undercover police officers. The conversations became sexual and Friend told the decoy girls that he wanted to meet them.
"He accepted that some of the conversations were sexual and he did know the potential consequences of speaking to these girls," said Miss Hughes. "He said that his need for chats outweighed the risks."
Steven Garth, mitigating, said that Friend had previously been given suspended prison sentences and had never been jailed before but he had breached the latest suspended sentence that had been made only a few weeks before the new offences.
"It's difficult to pinpoint the exact motivation for these offences," said Mr Garth. "It appears there is clearly some sort of inherent weakness in him. His need to chat outweighed the risks he was taking in making these communications."
Reasons included loneliness, sexual frustration, lack of a support network around him and his "desire above everything to chat on these chat lines", the court heard.
Unemployed Friend had been in custody for between seven and eight months. He had been living with his third wife previously but they had separated, with divorce proceedings starting.
He had a 19-year-old daughter from a previous relationship but he did not see her at all, the court heard.
Judge Peter Kelson QC said that Friend had previously been given every chance possible with a suspended prison sentence in 2016 but he now had to be jailed because of the breaches of the orders. The two-year suspended sentence was activated, with a consecutive one year for the new offences, making a total prison sentence of three years.