A CONVICTED paedophile was “up to his old tricks” as he deleted an app and search history from his phone and refused officers access to his Snapchat account – which he held under a fake name.

Jake Roberts was convicted of making indecent images of children in April 2021. He was handed an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, and was made subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

The terms of the order banned Roberts from deleting any history on his devices or apps and from holding any social media accounts under any other names, and stated that he must allow the police access to his accounts.

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Officers attended Roberts’ address in Cilgerran on November 13 last year and his Nokia mobile phone was seized.

Prosecutor Alycia Carpanini said that 14 searches were found on the phone’s Google Play Store for the Telegram app – 13 of which had been deleted. The app had been downloaded for the first time on August 22 – just months after his previous suspended sentence had ended.

Roberts was asked to provide the password to his Snapchat account. He gave five passwords – but each of them failed.

Ms Carpanini told the court that the Snapchat account on Roberts’ phone was under the name ‘Jeanette’.

Roberts was arrested for the breaches.

In interview, he told officers that he had “never heard” of the Telegram app and that he “didn’t know anything about it” and that it being downloaded and deleted was “nothing to do with him”.  

When Roberts’ phone was further examined, officers found a child sex abuse image of boy – thought to be aged between six and eight – being raped.

Roberts, now of no fixed abode, later admitted two breaches of a sexual harm prevention order, but denied a charge of making an indecent image of a child. The prosecution said these pleas were acceptable.

Caitlin Brazel, in mitigation, said Roberts described his own actions as “incredibly foolish”.

She said that his best mitigation was his guilty pleas, and that he was “extremely remorseful” and “bitterly regrets” his actions – not only for this offending but also for his past offending.

Ms Brazel said the defendant was still only 22 and had learning difficulties. She said there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

Sentencing Roberts, Judge Paul Thomas KC said the defendant had “completely ignored” his sexual harm prevention order – which he breached “blatantly and knowingly”.  

“You were trying your best to disguise from the police that you were up to your old tricks,” he said.

Judge Thomas said that although Roberts was not convicted on the indecent image charge, it was an aggravating factor in his sentencing for the breaches.

“The physical and psychological impact on that boy, wherever he is in the world, is caused by people like you,” he told Roberts.

Roberts was jailed for a total of 18 months for the breaches, and Judge Thomas ordered that the charge of making an indecent image of a child lies on the defendant’s file.