Locations
Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN1
Description
A 38-year-old man who was issued with a Sexual Risk Order (SRO) while under investigation for online child sex offences has been jailed for more than four years.
Liam Pink, formerly Kettering, was issued with the civil order in October 2022 at Northampton Magistrates’ Court which are used to manage those who pose a sexual harm risk to the public.
Northamptonshire Police applied for the SRO after Pink’s arrest on suspicion of attempting to cause/incite a girl under 13 to engage in a sexual activity and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
This followed allegations from an online activist group that between August 12 and 28, Pink had engaged in an online conversation, exchanging explicit messages of a sexual nature, with a 12-year-old girl. However, she didn’t exist and was in fact a decoy.
The five-year SRO was issued with certain conditions he was required to abide by, including not having unsupervised contact or communication with any child under the age of 16, not using any social media account unless in the name of Liam Pink and not using any device capable of accessing the internet without notifying police.
During a routine visit on April 9 this year, officers from Northamptonshire Police’s MOSOVO team, which closely manage sexual and violent offenders, arrested Pink after an examination of his mobile phone found that he had breached the SRO three times.
Between January 1 and March 31, there was evidence to suggest that he had had contact with a child under the age of two without the parent’s knowledge of his order. He had also failed to notify police about a social media account that he had set up using a different name.
Pink was subsequently charged with the three breaches of the SRO as well as the online child sex offences that he was under investigation for and on June 3, he pleaded guilty to all five offences at Northampton Magistrates’ Court.
His case was sent to Northampton Crown Court for sentencing, and on July 13, he was jailed for four years and four months and issued with an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Risk Management Officer Libbie Stiff from the Force’s MOSOVO Team, said:
“We take an absolute zero-tolerance approach to situations like this. Liam Pink’s repeat offending showed that he had a blatant disregard for the sanctions imposed by the court, and I am pleased that this sentence reflects the serious risk that he poses.
“I also hope this case reassures the public that we are working proactively to continue to keep children in Northamptonshire safe from online predators and to bring anyone who threatens that safety to justice.”