Locations
Ashbourne Road, Derby, Derbyshire, DE22
Description
A Derby child sex offender has been jailed for downloading Twitter to his mobile phone. Derby Crown Court heard how David Lee failed to tell the police who were monitoring him he had even bought the phone as he was supposed to.
Then, when he did finally tell them, they discovered he had downloaded the social media app on to it. Both of these put him in breach of a suspended sentence order and a three-year community order, the latter of which was handed to him by the judge who has now sent him to prison.
Judge Shaun Smith KC said: "I gave you a chance back in 2020 and it looked like for a long time you were taking it. You have now committed two offences during that order. In November last year you got another chance (at the magistrates' court with the suspended sentence) and you breached that. You know what it is all about because you have previous convictions for offences like this.
"And once month after being given that (second) chance you were uploading things on a phone you were not supposed to have. You knew what you were doing because you have a history of offences such as indecent images."
Mark Knowles, prosecuting, said Lee, of Ashbourne Road, has previous jail sentences for making and downloading indecent images of children. He said in 2020, Judge Smith handed the 58-year-old the three-year community order for such offences.
He said that was breached when he failed to tell the police where he was living and the defendant found himself in front of the magistrates' court in October 2021 where he was handed a suspended sentence. But in November of last year, just a month later, Lee disclosed that he had the phone.
Mr Knowles said: "He was supposed to register it but he had not and when he was interviewed said he did not register it as he kept forgetting to do so. During the interview he admitted he had downloaded Twitter to the phone."
Lee pleaded guilty to breaching both the community order and the suspended sentence order and has previous convictions from 2014, 2017 and 2020.
Sarah Phelan, his barrister, said: "He has attended court with a bag knowing there is likely to be a long custodial sentence. He is a man who has particular mental health problems including being medicated for anxiety and depression."