David Collings 23

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A boasting Snapchat predator has been jailed after he offered to send pictures of his big package to a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

David Collings, of Topsham, claimed to be a 21-year-old Londoner called Gypsy Davy but was actually a lonely 26-year-old who has a history of online abuse.

He was banned from using Snapchat by a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) but installed the app on his phone despite a specific warning from the police, Exeter Crown Court was told.

He used two different accounts on the app, calling himself Davyboy and GypsyDave and made contact with the girl from Essex earlier this year.

The police were alerted after her horrified mother found a stream of messages on her phone in which he offered to send her pictures of his boy and sent a voice note which asked Ive got a big package, can you handle it?.

Collings is a registered sex offender who has previously performed webcam sex acts while being watched online by an 11-year-old girl. The SHPO was intended to prevent him doing the same thing again and allowed the police to monitor his internet and social media activity.

His police offender manager caught him with Snapchat on his phone four times in six months during unannounced visits. He was given a specific warning on the first occasion and prosecuted over the other three.

Collings, of Exeter Road, admitted sexual communications with a child, two breaches of the SHPO, and breach of a suspended sentence imposed for the first breach in March.

He was jailed for a total of a year and 10 months by Judge Timothy Rose, who put him on the sex offenders register for 10 years and imposed a tighter SHPO which will last for the same length of time.

He told him: You carried on doing as you pleased. I have to look at the history of what you have done and you have breached the order for the third time.

That raises a profound concern about the level of risk that you pose and will continue to pose in terms of committing sexual offences directed towards young people.

"I have made a new SHPO but your history does not indicate much optimism that you will comply with it.

Judith Constable, prosecuting, said Essex Police contacted the Devon and Cornwall force in February this year over messages that had been sent to a 15-year-old girl from a Snapchat account in Devon.

Inquiries led them to identify Collings, who had used two different names and claimed to be aged 21 and living in London.

He repeatedly asked for pictures from the girl and offered to send explicit pictures of himself, despite her telling him not to.

Miss Constable said: She felt uncomfortable and each time she was asked, she said no. He sent a voice note which said Ive got a big package, can you handle me? to which she did not reply.

Shortly afterwards, the childs mother found the messages and took the phone away.

"She said she had been concerned about a change in her daughters behaviour over the six weeks in which the messages were sent.

Layla Jhaveri, defending, said Collings suffers from severe autism but has been able to hold down a job as a building labourer and has been working well with probation to change his behaviour.