Description
A convicted sex offender who deliberately went to ground instead of telling the police where he was living has been jailed after being told that he had finally "come to the end of the road" for being given chances.
Drug user David Schofield had previously been spared prison for committing "precisely the same offence" but he did not learn his lesson and he brazenly ignored his "duty" to register with the police every seven days, Hull Crown Court heard.
Schofield, 47, from Hull but recently remanded in custody, admitted breaching his notification requirements as a convicted sex offender and breaching a 24-week suspended prison sentence imposed for earlier failures to notify his details.
Chloe Pinches, prosecuting, said that Schofield was convicted on January 17, 2020 of sexual assault and he was ordered that day to register as a sex offender for seven years.
He was back in court on July 20 last year for failing to comply with notification requirements and, after he was released from custody, he told police that he would be living in Hardy Street, Hull.
On November 16, Schofield was seen by a police community support officer in Hull city centre and he said that he was of no fixed address. He was told to go to the police station and notify his details and he was reminded that he needed to do so every seven days.
"The defendant failed to do so," said Miss Pinches. Schofield was arrested on December 30 for that and other offences.
He pleaded guilty at Hull Magistrates' Court on January 4 to offences of assault and criminal damage, committed on December 12, and he was jailed for 12 weeks.
During police interview, Schofield said that he could not provide details of where he was living because of problems that he had suffered. When he was asked if he understood his conditions and whether he had made any attempt to tell police of any change in his living status, he replied "No comment."
He said that he would probably be in and out of prison for the remainder of his notification period because he would never be able to tell police of his address.
"There was a long period of non-compliance," said Miss Pinches. "The last recorded notification by the defendant was July 20. He had multiple opportunities to attend the police station to notify them of his change in circumstances but he chose not to, despite accessing agencies that support rough sleepers and advising them that he was homeless.
"This resulted in his whereabouts being unknown to the police for a long period of time." Schofield had been assessed as posing a medium risk of committing further offences of a sexual nature.
It was his fifth appearance in court for failing to comply with his notification requirements, said Miss Pinches.
Marc Luxford, mitigating, said that Schofield had suffered from drug-related problems, made worse by not having a home and living on the streets. "He accepts that the duty was on him and he ought to be registering every seven days," said Mr Luxford.
"He accepts that it was his duty and that he ought to have attended at the police station." Schofield had been in Lincoln Prison most recently after earlier being in Hull Prison, where services had been easier to access.
Recorder David Brooke KC said that Schofield showed a "deliberate failure to comply" with his sex offender registration responsibilities.
"It's a repeat offence," said Recorder Brooke. "You were in breach of a suspended sentence for precisely the same offence. The probation service has obviously tried very hard to help you and has come to the conclusion that it can't really offer anything else in the community.
"It's a deliberate failure to comply with the requirements rather than a determined attempt to avoid detection. You have been doing this not just on one occasion but two.
"I am afraid that you have come to the end of the road in terms of other alternatives."
Schofield was jailed for a total of 54 weeks.