Locations
Calf Lane, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, GL55
Description
A child sex offender has been sent back to jail after breaching a court order by deleting his internet browsing history and hiding electronic devices from the police.
Jason Cartledge, 47 and of Calf Lane in Chipping Campden, had been jailed for ten months in 2017 for inciting a 15-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity.
He had persuaded the girl to send him intimate pictures of herself via social media and had threatened to harm himself if she did not.
He had added to the pressure on the girl by threatening to circulate compromising pictures of her if she did not keep complying with his demands.
The sentence imposed on Cartledge in 2017, included an indefinite sexual harm prevention order requiring him to make his internet-enabled devices available for inspection by police.
At Gloucester Crown Court on Wednesday, April 27, prosecutor Alan Williams said that on an unannounced police visit on August 24, 2021, Cartledge handed over his phone, a work phone and a gaming console.
It was then found that he had an iPad and a laptop which he had not presented to police.
An examination of the devices found the iPhone had 724 deleted messages, mostly from Whatsap, while the iPad had 90 deleted messages on TikTok.
Cartledge admitted to breaching the court order on several occasions and said he did not want or need a lawyer to speak for him in court.
He added: Im very sorry for what Ive done. I have turned a corner in my life and I am now a lorry driver. If I go to prison I will fall to lose everything.
I hid the iPad because I had been watching pornography and was embarrassed about it. I purchased the laptop to repair my games console.
I only deleted messages relating to a friend who was threatening to take her own life. I accept I should have spoken to my offender manager before I deleted these messages.
Judge Michael Cullum noted that Cartledge had breached the order previously, in September 2018, when he was given a suspended prison sentence for having internet conversations with young females.
He added: You stated to the police on arrest 'is there nothing I can have as my own' - the answer is no, because you contact children, sexually. That is your history because that is the way you have behaved in the past.
You give an innocent explanation, which I dont accept. I suspect you may have been re-offending.
The judge sentenced Cartledge to an immediate 12-month prison sentence and explained that he was unable to suspend it because of his history of poor compliance with court orders.
The judge warned Cartledge that the indefinite sexual harm prevention order remains in place.