Kieron Mead 34

Description

A SEX offender who accessed the internet just 10 days after being handed an order banning him from doing so has been locked up for two-and-a-half years.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Kieron Mead, now 34, was made subject to a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) in June 2023 after being convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

Prosecutor Aimilia Katsoulakis said that police officers found he had been using several social media platforms, sending messages and participating in chats, during a routine check in August 2023.

He had also been using a Harry Potter-themed app to communicate with others.

He was arrested on suspicion of breaching his SHPO and several devices were seized including an iPad, a Samsung mobile phone, and an Xbox console with hard drive attached.

The police also found a smartphone, which Mead had not presented and which violated prohibitions, putting him in breach of the SHPO.

The smartphone showed evidence of Facebook activity under an account called “Kieron Meadonator Mead” that had sent messages to a female just 10 days after the SHPO was imposed. He was prohibited from using Facebook.

A year later officers made a further visit to Mead’s home and asked him to hand over his devices. He presented a Nokia non-smartphone and a laptop.

The laptop contained numerous emails from a dating website and evidence that Mead had logged into his account.

He denied he had any other devices but when the officers heard a notification sound he retrieved a Samsung tablet from under his bedcover, which he claimed was his mother’s.

However she later confirmed he exclusively used it.

The tablet was found to have an active game running, with a chat function that was considered to be an unauthorised messaging platform. The tablet also contained Snapchat, which Mead was prohibited from using.

He was arrested for breaching his SHPO and the laptop and tablet were seized.

In May and June 2024 Mead used various social media platforms to chat under several aliases with females, which were not registered with police and therefore represented further violations of the order.

During three police interviews he gave “no comment” answers to all questions.

Mitigating, John Bottomley said Mead, of Canterbury Crescent, Halifax, had had issues in terms of his upbringing, including emotional development that led him to communicate better with children than with adults.

He described the offending of Mead, who had spent 242 days, or almost eight months, on remand as “snowballing”.

Mr Recorder Andrew Haslam KC said Mead, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, was guilty of persistent breaches of his SHPO.

He said: “You must have bought another device to access the messaging platforms and Snapchat after the police seized your smartphone in August of the previous year.”

He described Mead’s breaches as “persistent” and that his repeated offending over a 12-month period was aggravated by the first breach being committed “within a matter of days” of the SHPO being made.

Sentencing Mead to a total of two-and-a-half years imprisonment he said he would serve up to 40 per cent of that in custody minus time spent on remand.