Corby child sex offender jailed after breaching court orders he didn't like

A convicted child sex offender from Corby has been handed a prison sentence after breaching court orders designed to monitor him.

Christopher Graham, 24, was given a community order in 2017 after he was convicted of sexual activity with a child over incidents involving two young teenage girls.

He was also handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and put on the register for sex offenders in a bid to keep tabs on his whereabouts and his use of devices and the internet.

In January, when he was living in Kettering, magistrates gave him a suspended sentence for breaching the orders over his use of Snapchat, Instagram and a phone number he hadn't registered as well as failing to tell police about his new bank card and an address he had stayed at.

And just two months later he was arrested again for further breaches - landing him a 15-month prison sentence at Northampton Crown Court yesterday (Tuesday).

But having spent seven months on remand he is likely to be released into the community on licence in about two weeks.

Sentencing, Recorder Christopher Donnellan QC told Graham: "You may not like the order but they are orders of the court.

"It's not a matter of whether you like them or choose to follow them."

The court heard Graham, who appeared over videolink from HMP Peterborough, committed his latest offences between February and March this year in Corby.

He had stayed at an address where a child resided - in breach of his SHPO - and used a mobile phone but failed to notify police.

He also failed to notify police within seven days of being of no fixed address. Graham later admitted two charges of breaching a SHPO and one of failing to comply with notification requirements.

The court heard he is "generally uncooperative" and doesn't comply when it's not what he wants.

Probation workers assessed him as "medium risk" but the court heard police had no further concerns about any contact with children under the age of 16.

Mitigating, Ravi Chandrapala said Graham had struggled to find a flat or room of his own to live in and that things many take for granted, such as access to washing facilities and toast for breakfast, are a luxury to him.

He said that the breaches were not him sticking his fingers up to the justice system but out of sheer desperation, adding that he hadn't put anybody in danger.

Mr Chandrapala said: "This is a young man who has simply had a difficult period in his life."

Recorder Donnellan QC told Graham, most recently of Corby, that he had shown a complete disregard for the orders as he jailed him for 15 months - nine months for the most recent breaches and six months activated from his suspended sentence.

The court orders originally put in place in 2017, which expire in January 2022, were not extended.