Locations
Lodge Avenue, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, DE6
Description
A convicted sex offender who pretended to be a teenager and sent sexually explicit messages to a child has been jailed.
Zak Waring used online platform Bigo to speak to a young girl who he believed was 13, before moving their conversations to WhatsApp.
Waring sent a stream of sexual content to the girl encouraging her to perform sex acts and send him photos and videos. He told the girl he was 16 but that his profile photo made him ‘look older’.
However, the ‘child’ Waring was speaking to was actually a decoy using an account run by an online child abuse activist group.
The 26-year-old committed the offences while subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order which banned him from using any messaging service to contact a child under 16.
Waring, who has a previous conviction for a similar offence, began speaking with the ‘girl’ in April 2026 and continued to message ‘her’ for several days. During this time, he also sent a picture and video of himself performing a sex act.
Waring, of Lodge Avenue, Ashbourne, was arrested on 22 April and charged with:
- Attempt to cause/incite a girl aged 13-15 to engage in sexual activity – penetration
- Adult attempt to engage in sexual communication with a child
- Offender 18 or over attempt to cause a child aged 13-15 to watch/look at an image of sexual activity
- Attempt to breach Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO)
He was remanded into police custody and appeared at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates Court on 23 April.
The court remanded him into prison custody, ahead of a hearing on 21 May, where Waring pleaded guilty to all offences.
He was sentenced at Derby Crown Court on 16 October and handed a jail term of 8 years and 3 months.
Waring was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and is required to register with police indefinitely.
He must also pay a court fine of £228 upon his release.
Officer in the case, PC Michelle Azizi said:
“Zak Waring went on to offend again, despite a previous jail term for a similar offence and ongoing court orders prohibiting him from contacting children.
“His continued desire to communicate sexually with children, for his own sexual gratification and his disregard for the law, make him extremely dangerous.
“Thankfully no actual children were harmed by Waring’s offending in this case.
“I am pleased to see that the judge acknowledged the seriousness of Waring’s reoffending by affording him an extended prison sentence for the risk he poses to the public.”