Locations
Hartington Road, Stockton, TS18
Description
A sex offender, who was previously snared by paedophile hunters, has been hauled before a court just months after being released from prison.
Matthew Hodgkiss, was jailed in July 2021 after asking who be believed was a 14-year-old girl for sexual pictures. He was ordered to sign the sex offenders register and abide by a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
However, Teesside Magistrates' Court heard this week that the 45-year-old, who was released from prison in August, last year, was found to have breached the prevention order and failed to comply with the sex offenders register when police visited his home address.
Tyler Plunkett, prosecuting, said: "On January 11 police attended the defendant's address to carry out their regular reviews." He said looking at his mobile phone officers found a new Instagram account, which had a username he had failed to register.
Mr Plunkett said police also found that he had applied to both Facebook and Instagram for accounts, then deleted them. He said the defendant said he had wanted them to communicate with other people.
Mr Plunkett said: "When asked why he had deleted them, he said it was because he didn't want the police to know he was using them."
Nick Ayres, mitigating, said: "The defendant was very candid in his interview to answering questions to the police, probably to his detriment. It was a deliberate breach."
Hodgkiss was initially snared by Guardians of the North when he started engaging in sexual conversation with a decoy, posing as a 14-year-old girl in June 2020. The court heard at the time he had asked her to carry out an indecent act and send him images of her genitals.
They began to contact each other over WhatsApp and Hodgkiss encouraged her to carry out an indecent act and send him photographs of her breasts and "lower down". The decoy tracked Hodgkiss to an address in Stockton, police attended and arrested him.
He was ordered to serve 26 months behind bars. Hodgkiss, of Hartington Road, Stockton pleaded guilty to both the breach of the sexual harm prevention order and failing to comply with the sex offenders register.
Hodgkiss was granted unconditional bail and the case was adjourned for sentencing at Teesside Crown Court on March 21.