Locations
Ennerdale Court, Old Barn Estate, Newport NP19
Description
A PAEDOPHILE illegally using his fathers Facebook profile to contact women was caught when one of them saw a report about him in the Argus.
Convicted child rapist Louis Beagen was barred from going on social media under a false name under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order.
The 28-year-old from Newport was getting in touch with women via Facebook Messenger by using the profile of his dad Gareth Beagen.
Beagan told one woman, a stranger, he had gone to Hartridge High School before sending her a photograph of himself lying bare-chested on a bed.
She recognised his picture from a court report shed read of about him in the Argus and contacted the police.
Beagen was jailed for more than six years in 2014 for sexual offences, including rape, committed against underage teenage girls.
Four years later he was locked up again after being snared by paedophile hunters when using his father's mobile phone and iPad to contact what he thought were three girls, one aged just aged 13.
Beagans latest offence took place last Christmas and he appeared before Cardiff Crown Court for sentence.
The defendant, of Ennerdale Court, Old Barn Estate, pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
These orders are made by courts for the purpose of protecting the public from further offending by defendants convicted of sexual crimes.
Judge Richard Williams told Beagen: You used a Facebook profile in the name of Gareth Beagen.
Gareth Beagen is your father.
Your basis of plea is that you did not create this account but made use of it and the prosecution does not seek to disprove that assertion.
However, under the terms of your order you had to notify the police about it and you did not.
You used that profile to contact women through Facebook Messenger.
These were all adult women.
One whom you contacted became suspicious and discovered that you had also tried to contact a friend of hers using a pseudonym and she also recognised from a newspaper report in the South Wales Argus that you were a convicted sex offender.
This amounts to a series breach of the order and it caused some alarm.
Julia Cox, mitigating, said: The defendant was not communicating with any individual under the age of 18.
It wasnt an account he had created for deceptive purposes but there is no excuse for the offending.
She added: Mr Beagen has now been predominantly in custody since the age of 19 and hes now 28.
There is a risk, in my submission, of him becoming institutionalised.
Beagen was jailed for 20 months and ordered to pay a victim surcharge after his release from prison.