Locations
Claremont South Avenue, Gateshead, Tyne And Wear, NE8
Description
A sex offender who called himself "Brian Robocop" has been jailed for breaching restrictions imposed on his use of electronic devices.
Brian Heron was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order and sex offender registration in 2011 after being convicted of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. Since then he has breached the orders on a number of occasions.
Now the 67-year-old, of Claremont South Avenue, Gateshead, has been jailed at Newcastle Crown Court after he did it again by installing internet history-wiping software, having unregistered devices and bank cards and failing to log the fact he was using the pseudonym "Brian Robocop" online.
In February last year police went to his home and found he had installed a cleaner on his phone which is capable of deleting internet history, which he is forbidden from doing. Officers deleted the software but then subsequently found he had reinstalled it.
When police examined the device then found a message from him saying "getting laptop up and running today". He had not registered any laptop with the police, as he was required to do.
Heron also provided police with a mobile phone from under a mattress. And while in custody he was found to have two bank cards which he had not told police about, as he was supposed to.
When the phone was examined, it showed he was going by the name "Brian Robocop" and he had not logged that pseudonym with officers. The cleaner software was also on that phone.
In August last year, police went to his home to carry out checks and asked to see his phone. He handed over a Nokia device which he said he'd registered with police but checks showed he had not done so.
Heron said he forgot to register the bank cards but said he thought the cleaner software didn't delete his internet history and "simply cleaned the device".
He has 17 previous convictions, including indecent assault on a male youth in 1994, for which he got a probation order and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child aged under 13 in 2011, for which he got a community order. He was given a sexual harm prevention order for that and ordered to sign the sex offenders register.
For the latest offences, he pleaded guilty to breaching the sexual harm prevention order for the fifth and sixth time and breaching the sex offender notification requirements for the second and third time. He was jailed for 27 months by Judge Amanda Rippon.
The court heard he is in poor health with diabetes and mobility problems and he has spent more than six months in custody on remand, the first time he has been to prison, which he has found "horrific" and does not want to have to go back. His barrister said he "apologises profusely and accepts responsibility for his actions".