Luke James 32

Description

Former hotel worker Luke James had not told the girl's mother - who he met online - that he was a convicted sex offender

A convicted sex offender showed a young girl a video on his phone of an animated singing penis.

Luke James had met the girl's mum on a dating website and went to a park with the family but had not disclosed his previous conviction for sexually assaulting a teenager. As part of the suspended sentence for that assault he is banned from having any contact with females under 16 unless their parent or guardian knows about his past.

David Singh, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that in April this year James met a woman who had young daughters on an online dating site. The woman and her children subsequently met the defendant at a park. But the court heard one of the daughters later told her mum James had shown her a video of "bums of willies" on his phone.

Concerned at what had happened the woman searched for the defendant's name online and found out about his previous conviction. In November last year James was given a suspended prison sentence and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Tenby. This offence had seen him pulling a teenager's top away from her chest and making comments about her not wearing a bra before kissing her neck and putting his arms around her. The court heard that after the mum found out about James' past she alerted the police and told them about the her daughter and the video.

The prosecutor said the 30-year-old defendant was arrested and police found a video of an "animated penis signing a song" on his phone. James told officers he thought it was only unsupervised contact with girls that he was prohibited from having.

Luke William James, formerly of Knowling Mead, Tenby, Pembrokeshire but now of Winch Lane, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, had previously pleaded guilty to breaching a SHPO when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has one previous conviction for one offence, namely sexual assault by touching. For that offence the former hotel worker was sentenced to 16 months in prison suspended for 24 months, and was ordered to undergo the Horizon sex offenders programme and to complete a rehabilitation course and 250 hours of unpaid work. The defendant was also put on the sex offenders register for 10 years, and was made the subject of a SHPO which is designed to control his access to girls.

Dyfed Thomas, for James, told the court that the main part of the sentence imposed last November had been the Horizon programme but that the defendant had yet to start the course as he had been assessed as needing one-to-one sessions rather than the usual group sessions. The barrister said following his previous conviction James had "moved to a new area and tried to make new friends", and said while the author of the pre-sentence report raised concerns about how candid his client was being, there was remorse on James' part. Mr Thomas also acknowledged that concerns had been raised about the defendant's "extensive messaging of woman of all ages" but he said no criminal offences had been committed.

Judge Huw Rees said the background to the offending was of concern - he noted the Probation Service had begun breach proceedings against the defendant prior to his arrest as he was not turning up for appointments, he was "evasive" about his internet use, and was "messaging multiple woman in a sexual manner". He noted a report into James had identified a "high level of sexual pre-occupation", and he added that in his view the defendant had been lucky to get a suspended prison sentence last November.

With a discount for his guilty plea, James was sentenced to six months in prison for breaching the SHPO, and the judge activated 12 months of the previously imposed suspended sentence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 18 months in prison. The defendant will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.