A convicted sex offender who boasted in an online chat room that he would not stop offending has been sentenced for more than four years.
Lewis Parker, 23, of Westcliff Avenue, Westcliff, appeared at Basildon Crown Court on Monday, July 1, when he was sentenced following proactive work by our Police Online Investigation Team (POLIT).
POLIT arrived at Parker’s address in Westcliff on May 9, 2024, after receiving information that Parker had been accessing indecent images of youngsters online. He was detained on suspicion of various offences. Parker was forbidden from owning devices due to a previous conviction, therefore they were seized for analysis.
This research revealed that Parker had been conversing in ‘dark-web’ chat forums about trading child pornography.
In one exchange, Parker boasted about being “on the reg,” which refers to the sex offenders register, and appeared to claim that his previous convictions had no bearing on him.
He was charged with three counts of creating indecent photographs of children, one count of possessing a prohibited image of a child, two counts of distributing an indecent photograph of a child, one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image, four counts of violating a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and four counts of failing to comply with notification requirements on the Sexual Offenders Register.
On May 10, he pleaded guilty to all charges. He appeared at Basildon Crown Court on Monday, July 1, and was sentenced to four years and four months in jail. He will also be on the Sex Offenders Register for the rest of his life and has been issued a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.