Locations
Leven Road, Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, TS20
Description
A convicted sex offender has been jailed after he failed to declare he was using an online alias and had bought an internet enabled games console.
Gary Bushnall was found in possession of an Xbox with an online account attached and initially tried to claim it belonged to his daughter.
The 52-year-old also failed to disclose he was using an alias name, BEELZEBUB#3589, within three days of creating it, Teesside Crown Court heard.
He was made subject of a suspended prison sentence last summer after previous breaches of the terms of his sexual harm prevention order and notification requirements which were imposed in 2020.
Bushnall, of Leven Road, Norton, Stockton, pleaded guilty to breaching the terms of sexual harm prevention order and the condition of his sex offender registration requirements following his arrest on April 2.
Michele Turner, mitigating, said her client had admitted the offences at the earliest opportunity.
The defendant told the probation service that he had bought the Xbox to alleviate his boredom.
Following his arrest, he pleaded guilty to two charges of cause/incite a girl to engage in sex act and one of attempt to cause a child to watch a sex act.
Judge Richard Bennett said he accepted that was case as the defendant had limited contact with his family and friends following his conviction.
He said: “There were no child abuse images or search terms found on the devices or was there any evidence you used it to contact children.
“That said, you remain a high risk to children which is why you are subject to the court orders.”
Judge Bennett sentenced the defendant to a total of 12 months in custody for the latest breaches of the court orders and for the breach of his suspended sentence.
In 2019, Bushnall contacted a teenager called Amber without realising she was in fact a decoy working with the online paedophile hunter group Confronted and Caught.
He struck up highly-sexualised conversation despite the decoy telling him he was talking to a 13-year-old.
At the time, a judge heard how Bushnall sent the decoy a video of himself performing a sex act.
For those offences, a judge sentenced to four months in custody, suspended for two years.