Steven Blades 35

Description

A registered sex offender has been jailed after he repeatedly breached a court order.

Steven Blades, 35, was arrested at his home in Manton, in Bretton, Peterborough after the team in charge of managing sex offenders discovered he was breaching the orders in place around him.

In 2022, Blade was convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and Sex Offender Notification Requirements (SONR), which required him to keep police informed of any changes to his personal circumstances within three days and if he had contact with children under 18 for more than 12 hours.

In August, the Management of Sexual or Violent Offenders (MOSOVO) team made several attempts to visit Blade at his home in Bretton, but he was not there so they began looking into his whereabouts.

They discovered he has been in a holiday park in Yorkshire where he had been in contact with children under the age of 18, and was in breach of his SHPO.

Blade was arrested and admitted the breach and an additional breach by buying a device capable of accessing the internet and setting up an email without informing police.

At Cambridge Crown Court on Wednesday (29 October), Blades was jailed for one year and eight months, having pleaded guilty to one count of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and five counts of failing to comply with sex offenders register notifications.

DC Faye Patterson, who investigated, said:

“Blades understood that what he was doing was wrong but did it anyway.

“He also showed a clear disregard for the conditions of his court order, which are in place to protect the public, and most importantly, children.

“The role of the MOSOVO team is to ensure sex offenders are complying with court orders and are prevented from further offending. Part of that work involves regular unplanned visits to ensure this is happening and this case highlights the lengths we will take to ensure that this happens.”