Leeds pervert banned from Facebook caught downloading apps and moaned ‘I don’t know how to talk to people’

Christopher Hawksworth was given a suspended sentence in 2021 for attempting sexual communication with children over the social media app. As part of his punishment, he was given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), which allows police to monitor his internet use.

But the 39-year-old has since breached that order, by hiding an internet-savvy smartphone under his sofa when police came to check on him in November 2021. He was jailed for 20 months as a result.

On April 26 of this year, police again came to check on him again at his Woodsley Road home in Woodhouse, where he handed over a smartphone that he had bought second hand. It had a Facebook app installed, and further investigation found that he had also downloaded and deleted nine various chat apps, which put him in breach of his SHPO.

He admitted the breach during a recent appearance at Leeds Crown Court via video link from HMP Leeds, where he was being held on remand.

Hawksworth was originally caught out by an online paedophile hunter group in 2021, when he targeted what he thought was a 13-year-old girl but was a decoy profile. He even gave the ‘girl’ a bus route information to his home.

Mitigating for his latest offence, Craig Sutcliffe said that the Facebok app was already installed on the phone when Hawksworth bought it. He said there was no evidence a Facebook account was opened by him, and he made no attempts to hide the phone from the police.

Mr Sutcliffe said Hawksworth had vulnerabilities which required professional help in the community.

Judge Andrew Stubbs KC jailed him for 20 months and said: “The troubling thing is that you have broken the order before. You are not abiding by the sexual harm prevention order.”

But before cutting the link to the prison, Hawksworth was permitted to speak and said: “I just find it difficult to speak to people. They say I’m a risk to the public, but I have never been a risk. I never know if people are being nice or nasty, I find it difficult to relate to anyone.”