Jason Thomas 42

Description

A paedophile who was jailed for grooming an "extremely vulnerable" child before having sex with her reoffended "almost immediately" after he was released from prison. Jason Thomas, 42, was jailed in 2021 after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child and engaging in sexual communication with a child.

He was given a five-year prison sentence, of which he served half, and when he was released in 2023 he had to abide by a sexual harm prevention order which banned him from downloading certain apps, using certain websites and trying to conceal his identity online, among other things.

But Thomas, of Pendeen, breached the order 12 times and found himself back before Judge Simon Carr at Truro Crown Court for sentence having pleaded guilty before magistrates.

Prosecuting, Katie Churcher said: "The background to that order being that it was imposed for a period of ten years following his conviction in 2021 with two counts of sexual interaction with a child. Following his release from custody, after he served what had been half of what was a five-year sentence, he was visited in Bridgewater by DC Allen and given another copy of the prevention order and handed over his phone.

"At that time they saw that the application Snapchat was on there. He was told the main feature of Snapchat is auto-deletion so was told he couldn't have that on the phone and it was deleted and he was reminded he needed permission to set up social media accounts.

"He was visited again unannounced on Jan 15 and handed over his phone again. He volunteered he had been using Whatsapp and said he'd been using Snapchat but had deleted it.

"My Google Activity was looked at to check internet history, there were searches for pornography and pornographic videos, it looked as though he had been deleting his internet history, and he had been using social media accounts that had been deleted including Tinder, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Telegram, various other live streaming apps, and private browsing applications.

"There was also an uninstalled VPN which conceals online IP addresses. It had been installed and deinstalled. Lastly they found his email account had been accessed, used and deleted. He was arrested for those breaches and interviewed on Jan 15. In essence, he made admission and when he was spoken to he said he had been doing things he shouldn't do."

Robin Smith, for Thomas' defence, said: "This man is very realistic about his position and his fate, perhaps the best mitigating factor is that he was extremely frank and candid with the police from the moment of arrest. Having spoken to him face to face he remains realistic and he appreciates he has some big problems to deal with.

"He is now in a state where he can accept the help given to him."

Sentencing, Judge Carr acknowledged Thomas' early plea and gave him full credit and added that the defendant's remorse seemed genuine. He said: "The circumstances of your offending is extremely troubling. Inevitably a sexual harm prevention order was made for a substantial period of time.

"After serving your sentence you were released on licence. It was clear you started offending almost immediately after you were released. What was found on the phone... is that you had set up a number of accounts and done everything possible to hide your identity. You put on devices to clear your history. You accessed sites that you would immediately delete like Snapchat.

"This is a serious breach of a sexual harm prevention order and you must have known so at the time. You have expressed remorse but you still present a high risk to children and I suspect you will do for a very long time."

Judge Carr sentenced Thomas to two 2.5-year sentences, which will run concurrently, giving him a total sentence of 2.5 years imprisonment. He will be eligible for parole after serving half the term.

Previously, we reported how Thomas groomed a vulnerable child before having sex with her. He later told the girl that hed be going to prison but the feeling of the encounter was the best feeling hed ever had.